World Aquaculture December 2018

24 DECEMBER 2018 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WA S.ORG organization, about 200 people attended. Officers and Board members were elected at the workshop and there were 143 charter members, which included several student members plus companies and universities as institutional members. WMS Workshops Becomes Proceedings The annual workshops of WMS were edited by Jim Avault, a professor at Louisiana State University (LSU), and published at that university in hardbound volumes that were distributed to WMS members. Workshops were held in Galveston, Texas (1971), St. Petersburg, Florida (1972), and for the first time outside the United States in Monterrey, Mexico (1973). As WMS continued to expand, some members contended that use of the name World Mariculture Society was audacious because membership was almost exclusively from the United States. Over a period of years, the European Aquaculture Society was formed, followed by other national or regional aquaculture organizations. Ultimately WMS, which morphed into WAS (World Aquaculture Society) claimed members from at least 100 nations. In 1975, the still hardbound volumes of the papers presented at the annual WMS meetings were changed to Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the World Mariculture Society. In 1980 the publication became the Journal of the World Mariculture Society for the first time. WMS Becomes WAS From its beginnings, WMS workshop and proceedings volumes included papers devoted to freshwater organisms. With that recognition, at the 16th annual WMS meeting in Reno, Nevada in 1986, the WMS president, Guido Persoone, announced that the name of the Society really needed to be changed to the World Aquaculture Society (WAS). The change made sense in that, increasingly, presentations at meetings included freshwater species in addition to marine and brackishwater organisms. Although activities associated with the mission of the Society probably underwent little change as a result of the name change, the Articles of Incorporation included some of the following action items for the new society (paraphrased): • Promote and evaluate educational, scientific, and technological development and advancement of aquaculture. • Gather and disseminate information on aquaculture throughout the world, • Promote education and training of prospective aquaculturists, and • Support aquaculture development by all governmental and industry sectors interested in aquaculture development. The Proceedings of the World Mariculture Society became the Journal of the World Aquaculture Society (JWAS) and went from hardbound volumes to a softbound publication that was published quarterly from volumes 19 through 38, and bimonthly from volumes 39 to present. Using a conservative estimate of an average of 15 articles per issue, JWAS has published over 2,000 contributions. Each and every article from the first workshops to the present are now available electronically to WAS members through the WAS website and Wiley, the publisher of the journal. The WAS Home Office In addition to publishing volumes of WMS proceedings, the Louisiana State University Division of Continuing Education supported the Society by distributing the proceedings to members using part-time employees and student workers. Support from LSU was critical to the ultimate success of the Society. In 1979 WAS officially established LSU as its Home Office, which primarily maintained the Society mailing list in its first few years. Reorganization of the Home Office began in 1983, and by 1985, while still housed on the LSU campus, the Society became independent from the university, except for being provided with free office space. Sheree Ellison was hired as manager of the WAS Home Office in November 1984. Ultimately, the WAS Home Office was provided space at the J.M. Parker Coliseum, where the WAS library was housed and where the mid-year meetings of the WAS Board of Directors convened. Juliette Massey was hired as Home Office manager in 1987 and later became Home Office Director, a position that she kept until her retirement in 2007. The Society began to mature during the years when she managed the Home Office. The WAS quarterly Juliette Massey was Home Office Director from 1987-2007. World Aquaculture Society booth at Aquaculture 2000 in New Orleans, LA.