Aquaculture for all

Debate Starts On Aquacultures Pros And Cons

Environment Economics Politics +3 more

THAILAND - An international aquaculture conference with more than 700 participants from 60 countries brought together to evaluate where fish farming stands today and to look at upcoming challenges and opportunities gets underway today in Phuket, Thailand.

Important issues to be discussed at the FAO-organised Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010 will be ways to reduce and mitigate the environmental impact and to improve governance of the sector while further increasing its contribution to food security, economic development and poverty alleviation.

According to World Fishing & Aquaculutre, the conference will hear about technological advancement over the last 10 years in such areas as water treatment, new farming systems and species, health management, improved information and communication, and fish feed with substantially reduced fishmeal content.

Despite good progress, much more needs to be done in priority areas, the conference will hear.

Since the sector already provides over 30 million jobs worldwide, governments are increasingly seeing aquaculture as an important element in rural development and investment strategies. However, regions like Africa are being left behind.

Genetics in aquaculture will be a hot topic. Some successes include the use of “induced triploidy” in large rainbow trout to induce continued growth while the fish remain in prime condition.

On the other hand, the genetic management of aquaculture production has frequently been inadequate which results in a decline in production due to inbreeding, genetic drift and uncontrolled hybridization.

The conference runs from 22 through 25 September 2010.

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