Event: Aquaculture 2013 review

With over 3,000 delegates and more than 350 presentations in 15-minute bite size chunks each over four days, Aquaculture 2013 in Nashville, Tennessee, USA, has closed after being hailed a great success by its three independent organisers: the World Aquaculture Society, the National Shellfisheries Association and the Fish Culture Section of the American Fishieries Aquaculture Society. 

Held in the Nashville Congress Centre, Aquaculture 2013 also hosted a very successful three-day exhibition during the four days of presentation running from last Friday to its Monday close.

This meeting will be noted for its keynote opening presentation delivered by Dr Edward Allison on ‘Aquaculture in a Changing Climate’. 

Dr Allison who has worked with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation in West and Central Africa and until recently the director of policy, economic and social science research programme at the World Fish Center in Penang, Malaysia, suggested aquaculture was being overlooked in discussions on climate change. His research bridges economic and social development concerns with those of fisheries, aquaculture and environment governance.

His current work focuses on the contribution of fisheries and aquaculture to food and nutrition security with aspects of adoption to climate change. In September 2013 he will take up a professorship in the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs at the University of Washington in Seattle.

He told delegates that feed manufacturers should be congratulated for the work they have been doing to make aquaculture viable through their development of efficient and effective ration formulation.

During the same opening session and among the various awards was a joint presentation of WAS Exemplary Service Awards made to its general manager John Cooksey and his wife Mary. Both were honoured for their work organising WAS activities since 1996.  Kevan Main, President World Aquaculture Society 2012-2013, presented the award to the acclaim of the audience – the first time a join award had been made.

“I was taken completely by surprise,” John told International Aquafeed following the presentation. He recalled the first meetings he organised for WAS, the first in San Diago, California, prior to being invited to join the Society and take over all its meeting. The second his first international meeting for WAS in Thailand in 1996.

“Organising conferences has been getting easier but the scope of each is getting wider with meetings being held all over the world. Some locations in the beginning had no facilities at first including no pipe-and-drapes and where catalogues went handmade. But they were a lot of fun,” he recalled.

John Cooksey's Exemplary Service Award presented at Aquaculture 2013 in Nashville, USA.