LACQUA 24 “Aquaculture in Latin America: innovation and sustainability for a global aquaculture” is almost here. I want to thank again our two Board Directors Dr. Adriana Muñoz in the academics field, and Dr. Paola Barato also in the academics but mainly in the industry sector, and our Executive Secretariat Carolina Amezquita, who have finished a very attractive program, including pre-event training courses devoted to areas like nutrition and feeding, genetics, and tilapia culture. Combined events will include the XI Colombian Congress of Aquaculture and the meeting of the Latin American Association of Native Fish Culture. The three Plenary Conferences (one per day) will give the audience the opportunity of listening to world leaders talking about pathology issues in tilapia, “omics” in aquaculture, and innovation in aquaculture feed resources. Our trade show is also taking shape as one of the biggest in recent times for our Latin American and Caribbean Chapter Conference. Find all the details, including hotel options, in the following link https://www.was.org/meeting/code/LacQua24.
For our LACC Membership: please take the time to vote in our Chapter´s Call for Elections: we will renew three Board positions this year: President-elect, treasurer and one Director. I want to thank the Elections Committee, headed by our Past-President Dra. Maria Celia Portella, for all their work in this regard. We have assembled a very strong group of candidates, who accurately represent not only our region but the gender equality that I want to maintain within our LACC Board. Our ballot looks as follows:
• President-elect: Dr. Marcelo Shei (Brasil), Dra. Paola Barato (Colombia)
• Treasurer: Dr. Jesaias Costa (Brasil)
• Director: Dr. Juli-Anne Russo (Jamaica), Dr. Marisol Morales-Covarrubias (Mexico)
As I have informed you in previous columns of our WAS Magazine, our LACQUA25 Conference will take place in wonderful Chile, specifically in Puerto Varas, in the week from 6-10 October (precise dates to be confirmed). We have continued our work with our local partners and will establish the Scientific and Steering Committees as soon as LACQUA 24 is over. Our local partners are headed by the Salmon industry, always very active. Having in consecutive years our Conference in Colombia and Chile will give us the opportunity to witness how aquaculture is sustainably developing in the region, with the examples of two of our leaders with very different approaches and species: Colombia based on freshwater culture and tilapia, and Chile as a world leader of salmon aquaculture. Both industries are well organized and give blueprints for how sustainable aquaculture development can take place. Finally, we are already establishing talks with potential hosts for LACQUA26, which very possibly will return to Mexico. We will keep you posted of our developments.
I want to close my column with the news that the 2024 FAO’s State of Aquaculture and Fisheries SOFIA has given us: it confirms the increasing relevance of aquaculture to provide food for human consumption. In 2022 and for the first time, aquaculture and its 94.4 million tons represents a majority (51%) of total aquatic animal production, overpassing fisheries. Aquaculture already provided 57% of the production that goes directly to human consumption. But challenges remain the same, regionally: for the Latin America and Caribbean region, an increase of 13% in aquatic food from animal sources will be necessary by 2050 to sustain, at current levels (2022), the per capita consumption, considering population growth. Issues like governance, which are currently important, will soon become urgent if we want to achieve this production. Water stress is being felt already in most of the region (for freshwater, continental production systems). In addition to quantity, the quality of traditional water sources is at risk if regulatory systems are not put in place by country governments and proper resource management, with the communities as principal voices at territorial levels, is not enforced.
We hope to see all of you in Medellín, Colombia, September 24-27 for LACQUA 2024!!!!
— Francisco Javier Martinez Cordero, President