2 MARCH 2024 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG Contents (continued) 2 President’s Column 3 Editor’s Note 5 USAS Chapter Report 6 Asian Pacific Chapter Report 9 African Chapter Report 10 Latin American and Caribbean Chapter Report 12 Korean Chapter Report 70 Conference Calendar 71 Future Conferences and Expositions 72 Membership Application President’s Column program needs specialists in reproduction, nutrition, physiology, pathology, system design, production and later, genetics, genomics, immunology, bioeconomics, etc. The investment is significant in money and time, so public policy needs to be defined as soon as possible in countries willing to develop aquaculture (all?). Then, integration of this knowledge into a technology for a particular species is like a fish spine. You need talented people that can accommodate this knowledge puzzle to develop a specific technology. But once you have a technology, the challenge is still significant. While extension programs in some countries (i.e. USA), have been very successful for the Academic-Industry relationship, as sustainable production technologies become more complex (intensification, automation, use of data management for risk analysis) it requires better trained farm personnel. This establishes the need for more complete aquaculture training programs at community colleges and technical schools. Once again, time and resources are needed. Seven million trained people looks more and more like a significant challenge. At the World Aquaculture Society, the Board of Directors is very focused on developing strategies to divulge knowledge from our members more effectively. Of course, the Annual World Meeting and the Regional Conferences are very important. Our open access Scientific Journal (JWAS) and the World Aquaculture Magazine are aimed at delivering up-to-date, state-of-the-art information for the industry. We recently began offering a free WAS Membership for all students wishing to belong to the Society. Presently, we have a very strong web page and interaction strategy dedicated 100% for students from all over the world to exchange information. At the meeting in San Antonio, we also decided that we need to improve our communication through social media and develop webinars showcasing our most influential members, so expect more news soon. Early in the year, I had the opportunity to attend the Women in Ocean Food Studio event in La Paz, BCS, Mexico. Organized by HATCH Blue and Conservation International, it showcases projects in aquaculture led by women in Latin America. The first iteration was very strong, with more than 140 projects submitted for consideration. A very thoughtful presentation from Ms. Christina Walton set the stage for aquaculture development with purpose. The finalists showcased their businesses in several areas with very impressive presentations The future of aquaculture. The challenge of human resources. After Aquaculture America 2024, held successfully in San Antonio, Texas, last month, I was reflecting on the needs to develop a sustainable industry that can increase production by 50% in the next 25 years. We all know that Asia is the main supplier of aquaculture products (around 90%). At the World Aquaculture Society, we are convinced that this represents an excellent opportunity to develop other regions and species and we must focus on strategies to achieve these goals. My last column broached this subject, so we already discussed public policy, governance, investment needs, technology development and innovation. One major issue is that to increase production by more than 40 million tons we also need to incorporate qualified personnel in the value chain. Simple math would put the number of new human resources incorporating into the sector in the next 25 years at around 7 million. Are these people available already to work on demand? The simple answer is no. We can poach a little bit here and there (in finance, logistics, data analysis, transportation, marketing, etc.), but aquaculture is a special beast that requires specific profiles for successful commercial production. Where are these people going to come from? Obviously, you can transfer some managers from successful operations to new ones, but there is a limit. So, most of the new human resources will come from the different regions where aquaculture develops next. This means Latin America, Africa, some regions in Asia and some development is also going to come from developed countries in Europe and America. What is the challenge? It takes time to train personnel, develop new scientists (new species and new regions represents different challenges, requiring specific knowledge to be developed) and managers to structure and grow new businesses. In other words, if, for example, Mexico were to act on its Master Plan for Aquaculture Development (a proposal I coordinated several years ago) and had the 6 billion dollars required to grow from 250,000 tons today to 1 million tons, you would not be able to do it immediately. The main challenge would be to (develop and) implement technologies at the commercial level, but also, who would be the industry recipient of those technologies? A scientist requires 2-3 years for a master’s degree and 4 for a PhD, then 5 years to consolidate a specialty lab at a university or Science Institute (provided there are resources available), before being able to establish a research program focused on specific needs for a new aquaculture species and/or region. A basic group for an aquaculture (CONTINUED ON PAGE 72)
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