Barry Costa-Pierce chairs global meeting on 40 years of aquaculture science
Over 400 participants from 20 nations gathered November 3-7 in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain, to mark the first four decades of the Elsevier Science journalAquaculture, the mainstream journal of the field. Participants celebrated and reflected on progress made in modern aquaculture science in that time frame, and to help chart its future.
The conference focused on promoting aquaculture as a transdisciplinary science and included 12 keynote review presentations from pioneers in the field, as well as invited oral and poster presentations elected by the international scientific organizing committee.
SWAG视频 Doherty Professor and Director of the Marine Science Center (MSC) Barry Costa-Pierce, Ph.D., chaired the committee and presented a keynote, 鈥淔isheries-aquaculture for the restoration of ocean ecosystems: A review of interactions between sustainable fisheries, marine ecosystems and aquaculture,鈥 and chaired the symposium鈥檚 sessions on interactions of aquaculture and the environment. Costa-Pierce also presented a contributed paper, 鈥淎 New Social Contract for Shellfish Aquaculture in North America.鈥
Also presenting at the conference was MSC Assistant Research Scientist Carrie J. Byron, Ph.D., on 鈥淪ocial-ecological systems for the carrying capacity of shellfish aquaculture.鈥
Costa-Pierce鈥檚 plenary address reviewed the inter-linkages between fisheries and aquaculture and how these have often been underplayed in terms of the impacts that aquaculture can have on seafood supplied for the future of 9 billion people. This often requires understanding how fishers respond to declining catches in changing livelihoods.
Costa-Pierce presented examples of how fishing communities鈥 involvement in aquaculture value chains can provide numerous economically viable alternatives. He called for greater transdisciplinary research to ensure that ecological and social impacts of emerging aquaculture are well understood and negotiated with fisheries stakeholders throughout the world.
Members of the international scientific organizing committee included Costa-Pierce and Brian Austin, University of Stirling, UK; John Benzie, University College Cork, Ireland; Ed Donaldson, West Vancouver Laboratory, Canada; Tony Farrell, University of British Columbia, Canada; Delbert Gatlin, Texas A&M University; Francisco Gomes, Novus, USA; Gideon Hulata, Agricultural Research Organization, Israel; David Little, University of Stirling, UK.