Page 6 - World Aquaculture Magazine - March 2011

4 March 2011
Indian aquaculture boosted for future
The Asian Pacific Aquaculture
2011 Conference and Exposition
(APAC2011), opened by The Hon
Minister for Fisheries & Registration,
Government of Kerala, Mr. S. Shar-
ma, on 17 January 2011 proved to be
the success that everyone was working
towards. Due to the period of mourn-
ing following the tragic deaths of over
100 pilgrims near Kochi just two days
before the opening (see story http://
www.npr.org/templates/story/story.
php?storyId=132935159 ), many dig-
nitaries who were to attend were not
able to fulfill the engagement. Those
able to attend certainly added value
to the event. Included were Dr.K.R.
Viswambharan, Ms.Leena Nair IAS,
Dr.P Krishnaiah IAS, Mr.B. Sree-
kumar, Mr.Anwar Hashim, Mr.U K
Viswanadha Raju and Mr.Thad Si-
mons (President, Novus International
Inc – Gold Sponsor). The event was
Co-chaired by Dr. C Mohanakuma-
ran Nair and Roy Palmer. Michael
New OBE was honored at the opening
with a presentation of the brand new
Indian version of his original book on
Giant Prawns.
All in all it was a terrific few days
for Michael. He had planned GP2011
for many years and was determined to
bring as many people back together
following his original Giant Prawn
Conference held in Bangkok in 1980.
For three days Michael presided over
the GP2011 which ran alongside
APAC2011, as well as seeing the char-
ity he founded, Aquaculture without
Frontiers, secure a number of spon-
sorships at a special event which saw
an extraordinary performance from
Ms.Sobhana’s Classical Dance Show.
Michael highlighted that when he held
his first Giant Prawn specific event in
1980 the production of the species was
around 3,000 t and is now in excess of
450,000 t, a massive achievement.
The latest statistics from FAO show
that Aquaculture will exceed wild cap-
ture harvest within the next 18 months
based on current growth and with the
Asia-Pacific region dominating pro-
duction with nearly 90% in terms of
quantity and approximately 80% in
terms of value. India is already the
world’s second largest aquaculture
supplier and the Conference, the first
international event of its type held
in India, will enable a new focus and
boost to activities.
During the event the College of
Fisheries was elevated to University
status and is now named The Kerala
University of Fisheries & Ocean Stud-
ies and is the first University of Fisher-
ies in India. As both host and partner
for the event this was a very worthy
honor for their skills and dedication to
the event.
APA2011-GP2011 built on over 700
abstracts, 200 posters, 54 sessions and
60 booths at the trade show and at-
tracted people from 47 countries. Con-
ference delegates numbered over 1,000
but in addition to this, well over 500
farmers from all over India attended
an intensive Farmers Day program
(sponsored by the National Fisheries
Development Board) and approxi-
mately 700 students from five colleges
were treated to an introduction to
Aquaculture on the last day.
In order to network and absorb all
the activities that WAS-APC Confer-
ences bring you also need liberal doses
of great food and engaging entertain-
ment and the Indian hospitality was
superb and culminated in the Presi-
dents Reception held at held at the
superb grounds of the Bolgatty Palace
Hotel, originally built byDutch traders
in 1744, where delicious seafood was
generously donated by The Ananda
Group and The Seafood Exporters
Association of India.
Mark Oliver, WAS-APC Student
Director, did a great job in getting a
small team of judges organized to
judge the Yang Yi Memorial Student
Award (YYMSA) and Best Poster
events. Mark noted that there were
many student volunteers assisting in
a range of ways and the conference
would not have been as successful
without their input. Over 80 quality
abstracts were submitted as part of
YYMSA as well as many informative
posters. As usual the competition was
fierce for best abstract and many were
worthy of high praise. There was also
a great deal of diversity in subject
matter. Most noticeably there was
an increase in abstracts focusing on
the more social/community areas of
fisheries and aquaculture than in the
past, which made judging even more
interesting.
Overall, it was a big home win
with all four winners hailing from
India. The winner of the Yang Yi
Memorial Student Award for best
abstract was Mr C. Dash of the
Central Institute of Freshwater
Aquaculture, Bhubaneswar, India for
his abstract titled ‘Cryopreservation
of fish embryonic stem cell with
carbohydrate additives. Mr.C. Dash
received a US$300 cash prize for his
award winning abstract.
In second place was Miss A. Das
of the Central Institute of Freshwater
Aquaculture, Bhubaneswar, India for
herabstract titled ‘Immunomodulatory
effect of recombinant RNA dependant
Polymerase (RdRp) protein of
Macrobrachium rosenbergii nodavirus
on Giant Prawn Macrobrachium
rosenbergii.’ Miss A. Das received a
US$200 cash prize.
In third place was Mr K.K
Prajith from Cochin University of
Science and Technology, India for
his abstract titled ‘Efficacy of various
carbohydrate sources as biofloculating
agent in the culture system of Giant
Prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii.’
Mr.K.K.Prajith received a US$100
cash prize for his great effort.
The winner of the Best Poster
competition was Miss S. Tripathy of
the Central Institute of Freshwater
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