The World Aquaculture 2023 meeting, which recently concluded in Darwin with excellent participation from the aquaculture sector in the Asia Pacific, was a great success. The event’s location was outstanding, and the Australian participation was tremendous. Because of the Darwin conference’s success, we anticipate upcoming WAS and APA events with even more excitement.

After WA2023, one of WAS-APC’s most important endeavors was to plan ways to engage with potential Asia Pacific regions where our representation is limited. The Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICT) have an emerging aquaculture industry. A preliminary discussion between the WAS-APC Board and Dr. Tim Pickering, Principal Aquaculture Advisor to the Pacific Community (SPC), was conducted online. Several action points where WAS-APC and the Pacific Community may collaborate to improve the technical and business capacity of aquaculture firms and training in PICT have been proposed as an outcome of this meeting.

With the same objective in mind, WAS-APC intends to integrate Cambodia and Nepal, two countries that are now very little involved with the Society aside from a few important industry representatives attending WAS or APA conferences. Plans to hold conferences backed by WAS-APC in Cambodia and Nepal, a technical workshop in Vietnam, and the Aquaculture Innovation Ideation Challenge (AIIC) focused on students, all mentioned in my previous report, are moving forward.

Aside from these, WAS-APC partners with the following conferences in 2023: the 10th International Conference on Fisheries and Aquaculture (https://aquaconference.com/), which will be held in Bali, Indonesia, from 24 – 26 October 2023; The 11th International Fisheries Symposium (IFS) 2023, which will be organized by the ASEAN-Fisheries Education Network and hosted by AIT in Bangkok, Thailand (https://aitaquaculture.org/ifs2023/), from 22 – 24 November 2023; and the GIANT PRAWN 2023 Conference (https://www.giantprawn.org/), organized by AIT in Bangkok, from 27 – 29 November, focused on the aquaculture of freshwater prawns. These events help maintain the significance of WAS-APC in the region, proactively contributing to the aquaculture industry in the Asia Pacific region.

Since the 2016 APA conference in Surabaya, Indonesia, which attracted a record number of attendees, there have been significant changes in Asia-Pacific aquaculture. Plans are currently on schedule for the next Asian-Pacific Aquaculture Conference (APA2024) to be held in Surabaya, Indonesia, from 11-14 June 2024. We anticipate increased attendance and interest in 2024. In the coming days, we will provide you with more information about another exciting meeting in Surabaya.
— Krishna Salin, President