This is my last issue as Editor-in-Chief of World Aquaculture. It has been a privilege to serve WAS as editor of this magazine for these last 11+ years, with this my 46th issue. Since leaving academia in 2006 and starting a career as a freelance consultant, being editor of the magazine has been an important part of my portfolio and has given me the opportunity to maintain my professional network within WAS and the aquaculture world at large. I’m very grateful to the Society for that.

I want to use this last Editor’s Note to offer thanks to particular individuals who have helped make this happen. First, producing the magazine is a team effort and, although the ultimate responsibility falls to the Editor-in-Chief, there are others working behind the scenes to make the magazine what it is. On the front end, thanks to Mary Nickum, now the longest serving member of the magazine staff in its history, for recruiting articles and getting them into shape for final editing. Thank you to Linda Noble, our fabulous layout editor, who has a special gift for making the magazine look professional and snappy. It’s an understatement to say that I could not have done my job without her artistry, flair, humor and can-do attitude. And although not “officially” part of the magazine team, WAS Executive Director John Cooksey has been instrumental in securing advertising for the magazine that is an important source of revenue. Thanks John! Appreciation also goes out to WAS Webmaster George McKee, who posts the magazine contents on the WAS website.

Thanks are also due to people I consider to be special supporters of the magazine and my work with it. They include Sandy Shumway, Lou D’Abramo, Patrick Sorgeloos, George Lockwood and Craig Browdy. Your comments and feedback have been most welcome along the way. Thanks too to the hundreds of authors and contributors who have submitted articles to the magazine during my tenure. Ultimately it is your work that has made the magazine what it is. Special thanks to Rodrigue Yossa for his excellent series of interviews with prominent WAS members and others on aquaculture professionalism. Thanks to those who have submitted multiple articles over the years, including Dan Benetti, Meghan Davis, Barry Costa-Pierce, Claude Boyd, Kazi Kabir and Janice Ragaza. Finally, I would like to thank the many WAS presidents and chapter presidents who have diligently provided columns to the magazine every quarter. I believe I came very close to having full participation in every issue. I’m proud of that and appreciate the efforts of these leaders.

One of the changes I brought to the magazine was taking a page for myself in each issue to write an editorial about a topic that I thought would be of interest to WAS members and was relevant or timely. Some were easier to write than others, but it fulfilled a personal goal of learning something new every day and I enjoyed sharing what I considered to be important topics and themes that affect our lives as professional aquaculturists or global aquaculture more broadly. It is my hope that some of these may have spurred you to action or some personal change, but at least were of interest.

The magazine has changed from a newsletter to a full-length magazine, first in print only, then print and online, and now the magazine is changing again to become online only through the WAS website. I see that the Board has taken the decision to make access to the magazine open to all, a change from access to WAS members only. Although these changes have nothing to do with my decision to relinquish my editorship of the magazine, it does seem that the timing is propitious for my exit. Incoming editor Greg Lutz will be able to put his imprint on the magazine as it goes through these transformations. Change is good!

Producing the magazine for WAS had its challenges. The most severe was an outbreak of plagiarism that we subsequently worked hard to stay aware and defend. We had some technical issues with printing covers that most readers would probably not see. Selecting covers was a perpetual source of anxiety, but we almost always had compelling images, often of “people doing aquaculture.” At the end of the day, the magazine is yet another example of what WAS does for its members — conferences, the journal and the magazine — to meet the mission of being a broker for credible scientific information.

I now join a small and exclusive group of Emeritus Editors of the magazine, including Dave Aiken, who started it all, and Bob Stickney, my predecessor. Several people have congratulated me on my retirement, assuming that relinquishing editorship of the magazine can be equated with the end of my professional career. I enjoy my work as a freelance consultant and intend to explore opportunities to continue in our profession, at least for the foreseeable future. And as a WAS Fellow, I’ll always be involved with the Society. I am not likely to attend as many conferences as in the past, but I do hope our paths will cross in the future. Farewell World Aquaculture readers.
. — John A. Hargreaves, Editor-in-Chief