Aquaculture America 2012: Las Vegas

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend the Aquaculture America 2012 conference, held this year in Las Vegas, Nevada.  The event attracted a wide audience from the US aquaculture industry, as well as many international manufacturers and producers.  The trade show featured hundreds of vendors from around the world, highlighting the latest advances and developments in design and research.

Having previously been to neither a large-scale aquaculture conference nor Las Vegas, I was understandably excited for the trip.  I arrived the evening before the Conference and had the opportunity to walk along the Strip and take it all in.  Yet once the conference started, my focus shifted entirely to my purpose for being there: listening, learning, and networking. 

The sessions covered a broad range of topics, from feed and genetics to economics and regulations.  The presenters themselves were just as varied, with members of government, education, and private sectors all in attendance. 

I had the opportunity to see some familiar faces as well as make many new contacts.  Given the breadth of people and industries in attendance, I feel as if I was successful in casting a wide net in terms of the individuals I met and the discussions I shared.  I am particularly excited about one or two of the people I met and the projects we discussed, which hopefully will be the basis of future articles for this blog. 

Overall I would say that it was time very well spent and I am already looking forward to Aquaculture America 2013 in Nashville next year!   

Returning to this Blog with a Bit More Gusto…

I write this after more than 5 months without putting pen to paper (so to speak) with this blog…

A lot has changed in 5 months.  After finishing the MSc., I returned to Vancouver where I secured a position with the AquaBioTech Group, an international aquaculture and environmental consulting network based in Malta.  The company specializes in the design and construction of recirculation systems, as well as marine surveying, market intelligence, research and development, and specialist audits, including environmental and risk management.  

I set up shop in Vancouver and am currently working as an aquaculture consultant and Regional Manager Canada for ABT, occupying my time with a variety of aquaculture-related activities and ventures.  While I won’t say too much at this point, what I can say is that there are some really cool things in the works, so check back to this blog often for updates and developments.

As I come back to this blog with a bit more gusto than as of late, I wanted to take an opportunity to thank those of you who have followed the blog over the years.  I get the occasional email from someone who has stumbled across an article that interests them, and I always enjoying hearing from readers.  As those who have contacted me will attest to, I am happy to share information and point people in the direction of further resources, so do not hesitate to be in contact.

I also wanted to share with you my plans for the future development of this blog.  While I will continue to write articles about my experiences in the industry, I also intend to write more opinion pieces, discussing important (and often misunderstood!) aspects of sustainability as it relates to fish farming around the world.  Perhaps more importantly, I will work to provide context and a ‘big picture’ perspective to these issues, hopefully enough so that you are inspired to do more research and form your own opinions.  I encourage people to post comments and foster constructive dialogue that focuses on solutions, not problems.

I am already looking forward to the next piece I am going to write, and I am not even sure what the topic is yet…  

'No ISA in BC' Says Canadian Government

On November 8, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), and the Province of British Columbia held a press conference to report that they had conducted a full investigation, reviewing both the samples and the initial reports, and that they found no consistent positive result indicating the presence of Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) in wild pacific salmon.

The best article I could have written wouldn't compare half as well to this article by John Fiorillo at Intrafish.com...

Enjoy!

ISA in Pacific salmon: Just kidding - First in Seafood News - Intrafish.com

No Conclusive Evidence in ISA Scare

Today, IntraFish Media reported that there was no conclusive evidence to support the results of a previous test that found the Infectious Salmon Anemia (ISA) virus in wild BC salmon.  An ISA expert at the University of Bergen in Norway apparently retested the samples and was unable to reproduce the results of the original testing.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CIFA) is the lead agency on this situation and has been developing their own tests and conclusions to verify or reject the presence of this virus.  I firmly believe it is important that people in the general public do not jump to conclusions and allow all the facts in this case to surface before taking any action.

Virus Reported in Wild BC Salmon- Fact or Fiction?

A potentially lethal virus known as 'Infectious Salmon Amenia' (or 'ISA' for short) has been reported to be found in wild Pacific salmon on the northern coast of British Columbia, Canada.  Up until now, ISA has only been found in Atlantic salmon, which is a different species than any of the 5 species of fish that make up the group 'Pacific' salmon.  Therefore, if found to be accurate, this test would represent the first time this virus has been found in a new species of fish.

There are several factors to this scenario that demand pause and closer inspection before we run through the streets touting the end of salmon as we in BC know it.  First off, the test used to identify the virus is extremely sensitive and prone to results of false-positives.  Next, only 2 samples in 48 tested positive, which warrants further testing even in the best of circumstances.  However, the lab claims that the samples were all used up in the testing, and that repeating the testing is now not possible.  Any run-of-the-mill scientist will tell you that in order to preserve scientific accuracy, you never use all the sample for testing because the results of any test must be able to be reproduced- that is one of the fundamental principles of the Scientific Method!  And it is a requirement of all experiments in case EXACTLY this situation arises!

Next, this ISA virus has been linked to fish farms in other countries, yet not one case has been detected in the hundreds of salmon farms in BC.  The lab who found the virus is saying that they have identified it as the 'European strain': this implies that the virus came from Europe in farmed salmon eggs (which are rigorously tested by both the shipping and receiving nations), was incubated in a population of farmed salmon in BC (which are also tested under stringent Canadian federal regulations), was transferred to a completely new species, and then detected in that species.  Personally, that sounds like too many leaps of faith to accept before I join the growing masses heralding an "ISA-Salmon Doomsday".

So let's all sit back, take a breath, and let the facts unfold before we make any rash decisions...