World Aquaculture - December 2014

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• WORLD AQUACULTURE • DECEMBER 2014 9
Shifting gears, many of you may have heard of predatory
publishing, where journals, usually new open-access journals, will
approach academics seeking submission of manuscripts, which
often turn out to have significant page or publication charges and
lack the editorial and publishing services associated with quality,
legitimate journals. A regularly updated on-line report lists
nearly 500 such journals and it is inevitable that one or more will
encompass the field of aquaculture.
I recently became aware of a similar phenomenon of predatory
conferencing, with organizations seeking to organize fee-paying
conferences, principally for income generation. This is different
from the scams many of us are aware of with invitations to bogus
conferences that never actually occur. (Most of the invitations that
I receive seem to arise from China). These predatory conferences
may actually take place if sufficient interest is garnered but are
likely to turn out to be something less than they are made out to be.
A common practice of predatory conferencing is to seek
endorsements from well-known people in the field, who are often
not aware that their interest in the conference is being used to
promote the event. Senior figures in WAS are prime targets for
such practice. So, when these tempting invitations drop into your
inbox, it pays to do a bit of due diligence. Things to look out for
that might set alarm bells ringing include a lack of any obvious
cooperation with local organizations and a lack of organizational
endorsement rather than individual endorsement. Fortunately the
brand and reputation of WAS is such that, as an organization,
our participation in or endorsement of an event can be seen as a
measure of its authenticity and legitimacy.
I mentioned in my last column about the two important
decisions taken by the Board in Adelaide to reinvigorate the journal
and to support the development of chapter home offices for the
APC and LACC. On the journal, our first step is to recruit an
Executive Editor. This process is travelling a bit slower than hoped
but we have a number of promising candidates for the position and
will soon be shortlisting. Hopefully I will be able to provide an
update in my next column.
We have made better progress on the development of chapter
home offices, with appointments made for both executive officers,
who will take up their positions this December. Further details
will be provided by the chapters but I would like to welcome
Pornnatcha Klinsorn (Genie) and Nashieli Rodriguez (Nash) to the
WAS executive team representing the APC and LACC respectively.
Genie will be based in Bangkok and will be working full time
with the APC while Nash will be based in La Paz, Mexico and
will initially be working on a part-time basis. These appointments
will enable those chapters to be more proactive and to engage
more effectively with their members. Hopefully these executive
officers will gain a better understanding of the most effective
value proposition of WAS membership in their respective regions,
enabling us to better tailor and adapt membership features and
services to deliver better value frommembership.
I would like to end by wishing all WAS members an enjoyable
and productive festive season, which here in Australia is a key time
of year for the seafood industry, with a major peak in consumption.
— Graham Mair, President
P re s i dent , continued from page 2
of Craig Tucker. The aquatic plant management chapter has been
completely re-worked.
The chemistry chapters of the book conclude with a chapter on
trace elements, emphasizing the importance of iron in groundwater.
This chapter combined several chapters from previous versions of
the book. A chapter on miscellaneous treatments follows, including
discussion of biological amendments, microbial and plant extracts,
oxidants and disinfectants, therapeutants and other substances.
Despite their widespread use, particularly in marine shrimp farming,
the authors are rather dismissive of probiotics, although admittedly
the evidence for their efficacy is equivocal. There is a new
chapter on water quality in low-salinity aquaculture, particularly
applicable to the farming of shrimp in inland areas heretofore
underutilized for this form of aquaculture. A chapter on pond
bottom soil management has been re-worked and is considerably
shortened from the previous version of the book. Interestingly there
is no discussion of phosphorus dynamics here. On the whole, the
discussion of phosphorus is minimal and scattered throughout the
book. Phosphorus deserves its own chapter, given its importance to
primary productivity and environmental impact (i.e. eutrophication).
The Handbook then moves into a group of chapters describing
the particular water quality issues associated with various culture
systems, including partitioned ponds, lined ponds (including biofloc
systems), flow-through systems, cage culture and recirculating
systems. A last chapter on effluents provides information on
strategies for effluent reduction and summarizes the Best
Management Practices available to minimize the volume and impact
of effluents.
The book concludes with a section on volume measurement
and calculations. This section is organized according to the water
inflow and loss terms of a water balance and provides good
information on measuring water flow. The section also includes
information on calculating the proper dose of chemical treatments
of culture systems. As in the other books, a helpful reference of
commonly-used conversion factors is included.
This book will have broad appeal to fish and shrimp producers,
students and scientists. It is an essential reference for anyone
working in the field of water quality, although the book also
represents a key reference for aquaculture scientists working in sub-
fields such as nutrition, reproduction, diseases, engineering, etc. The
price point of this book makes it affordable to growers, students and
scientists in the developing world. As with previous versions, the
book is, at its core, a practical manual for managing water quality in
aquaculture production systems.
— John A. Hargreaves
Editor’s Note: Handbook for Aquaculture Water Quality is
available through the on-line store at the WAS website. The book
is also available in the US for $49.50 per copy (including shipping
by US mail media rate) by ordering from P. Boyd, P.O. Box 3074,
Auburn, Alabama 36831. For international shipping costs or other
questions, contact .