Simon Davies with previous International Aquafeed Editor Albert Tacon
Zebra fish were also a focal point with sessions on their husbandry. This species is now firmly established on the aquaculture circuit due to the need for effective rearing and breeding technologies to provide an important resource for biomedical research throughout the world. Advances in the designs of life support systems, feeds and management allow for better consistency and reliability of results in the areas of nutri-genomics and understanding their developmental biology. It was really good to see a number of US students from colleges and universities from across America as the next generation of aquaculturists’. My group became close friends with graduates from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington who have an excellent marine sciences and aquaculture programme at their coastal location. Our own previous Editor Albert Tacon also made his appearance and as his former PhD student some 30 years ago we had much to discuss throughout the week. I felt like a student again! The main plenary speaker, Patrick Dempster, general manager of AquaGen Chile, presented delegates his invaluable experience from the research side of aquaculture to operations, farm management and business development (farm- to- market). He described the re-emergence of salmon production in Chile after recent problems and issues and reminded us of the many elements and complexity of the food chain with examples of the challenges the Chilean industry faced and the way it has re-emerged (from worst year ever performance in 2008 to best year ever performance in 2010) may hold some valuable lessons. The special session on “Four Ps of a Safe and Sustainable Aquaculture Industry” also highlighted the links in the value and supply chain and the importance of traceability and consumer acceptance of aquaculture produce. It was not all work however and Las Vegas lived up to its reputation for play and although tempted, I did not engage in gambling any of my research grants on the casino floor. My group did see some shows and we made a trip to the Grand Canyon and Hoover dam which was bitterly cold and not the usual picture post card scene of sweltering heat.. Aquaculture America will next be in Las Vegas in 2016. I am sure that the global economic position will be different by then and that may new policies will have been implemented in respect of sustainable development. For sure, the ever expanding research efforts in fish nutrition and feed technology will guarantee many new scientific advances and developments. I look forward to future meetings and reporting.