WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • JUNE 2018 5 U.S. Aquaculture Society Wow, what a ride! My first introduction to aquaculture was as a M.S. graduate student at Mississippi State University. I wanted to do something more fulfilling with my life, so I decided to get into the exciting area of research and development for a newly initiated project with freshwater shrimp. I ditched my job as a bench chemist for a large soap/lotion manufacturer and moved south. After graduate school, I moved to the Mississippi Delta and worked at the catfish research center in Stoneville, MS. There my supervisor provided my first opportunity to experience a World Aquaculture Society conference in 1989 at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, CA. I was hooked! I went back to graduate school to get a Ph.D. in toxicology but steered my dissertation research back to aquaculture by studying the effects of pesticide overspray and their neurotoxic effect on catfish. After graduation, I did a two-year post-doc in New Zealand studying the effects of pulp-mill effluent on trout and native aquatic organisms. Then I came home and finally settled in Stuttgart, AR at the USDA/ ARS Stuttgart National Aquaculture Research Center. The 1989 World Aquaculture Society conference was where a group of us met to discuss forming a U.S. Chapter of WAS. I vaguely remember being at this gathering with a few of the “more experienced” guys who are still around today; USAS was formed in June 1990. Thank Yous and Welcomes Thanks to David Cline for his service to USAS over the years, especially this last year as USAS President. We will follow his sage advice, along with that from other Past-Presidents, to guide us for the future. Also thanks to outgoing Board Members Eric Peatman and Allen Pattillo for their service to USAS. I’d like to welcome Angela Caporelli (President-Elect), Chris Green (Vice-President), Ken Cain and Dennis McIntosh (Board Members), Taylor Lipscomb (Student Liaison), and Adam Daw (Apprentice Student Liaison), as well as all the new Members of the committees (usaquaculture.org/committee-chairs) the Board has populated to help USAS with our mission and projects. As always, many thanks to the WAS/USAS Home Office for continued support and help. I know David Cline talked about Aquaculture America 2018 in his last column and I want to emphasize again what an outstanding, well-attended meeting it was, with an excellent turnout for our Aquaponics and Statistics workshops; thanks to Allen Pattillo and Steve Rawles for organizing them. The USAS Board has been busy with some behind-the-scenes planning and projects that should come to fruition soon. One of the projects was the recent member survey by the USAS Membership & Promotion Committee (see below). We had a 26 percent response rate, which believe it or not, is pretty good; so thanks to those who responded, and for those who didn’t, let’s try to do better next time USAS asks for your input. Member input is valued and appreciated! We have heard what ¼ of the USAS members are telling us, so we will see what we can do with these results. We will also work on putting together a report on all of the survey results in the near future. Remember, the squeaky wheel gets the grease, so let us know if there is something you’d like to see the Society doing. As always, we encourage members of USAS (and all WAS Chapters) to support and submit your quality manuscripts to JWAS! Thanks! — David Straus, President CHAPTER REPORTS Aquaculture America 2018 by the Numbers and Results of the USAS Member Survey Bill Walton, David Cline, Forest Wynne, Dennis McIntosh, Matt Parker and Dave Straus Aquaculture America 2018 The US Aquaculture Society (USAS), along with the World Aquaculture Society, brought together over 2,000 people from 61 countries around the world at our Aquaculture America 2018 conference in February. The conference featured 624 speakers and 108 poster presentations from academia, industry, government and non-profit organizations. In addition to the presentations (given in 63 sessions over three days), the trade show featured 174 booths, offering up the latest technology and innovations to potential customers. The meeting’s theme was ‘Shaping the Future - Telling Our Story,’ with an emphasis on addressing consumer perceptions and concerns about aquaculture. Next year’s meeting, Aquaculture 2019, will be in New Orleans, LA from March 7 - 11. It is anticipated to be even larger with more sessions, speakers and countries represented. It will be hosted by the World Aquaculture Society, the Fish Culture Section of the American Fisheries Society, the National Shellfisheries Association, the US Aquaculture Society, the National Aquaculture Association and the Aquaculture Suppliers Association. Check out http://usaquaculture. org/ for more information about the US Aquaculture Society and https://www.was.org/ for news about upcoming meetings. USAS Member Survey Following Aquaculture America, the USAS Promotion and Membership Committee sent a survey to our members to gauge member satisfaction and interest in various opportunities, such as webinar topics, workshop topics and potential meeting venues. (If (CONTINUED ON PAGE 6)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjExNDY=