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Clifford Spencer Changing the face of international aquaculture
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by Clifford Spencer, Chairman, AwF UK
aving travelled and reviewed aquaculture activities in Europe, Africa and the Far East upon our reformation in 2016, now as 2017 arrives my fellow AwF trustees and I are planning this New Year’s activities with the full board having met on the January 16, 2017 to discuss plans and aspirations. In particular we were struck by the way in which aquaculture is part of the everyday social fabric in Asia, whereas in the UK it is in a silo with politics and science. One central thread of our considerations will be the founding principles of the AwF organisation originally formed in 2004, in particular examining how these are best achieved in our rapidly changing world. So this month I will illuminate readers with some of the driving ambitions of Michael New OBE, our organisations original founder and his trusted fellow founding trustees. We will of course, also be planning with the additional benefit of modern communication methods perhaps unavailable in 2004, as well as thoroughly considering ways of attracting a changing donor landscape.
National Aquaculture Centre (NAC)
Another tool the reformed AwF in the UK will have is its joint ownership of the new National Aquaculture Centre based at the Humber Seafood Institute Building at Grimsby’s Europarc. Crucially, the new centre will focus on the entire value chain of fish and shellfish farming: breeding and physical production techniques, transport and marketing, to waste management. It will also look at ways to promote greater seafood consumption as the UK population currently eats only half of the chief medical officer’s recommended dietary intake of seafood for heart and brain health. Aquaculture offers the prospect of supplying a larger range of fish and shellfish for public consumption and its associated health benefits particularly with the UK’s ageing population of which the writer is a member! The first task for the centre is to set up the Michael New library and Michael has donated books for it and Plymouth University has donated the entire library from one of its satellite facilities that is no longer in use. The idea is for it to become a specialist aquaculture library for everyone from professionals and students, to local schoolchildren to use.
Hull University
Regionally located Hull University has agreed to be the official academic partner of the NAC with several meetings having taken place with its Institute of Estuarine and Coastal Studies and Hull International Fisheries Institute to this end. We are very excited by this development and the NAC is now in the process of meetings and ongoing discussions with several other local and national institutes and organisations, including the famous Eden Project in Cornwall. The centre will also feature international outreach to developing countries thereby assisting the achievement of AwF goals globally.
In this respect it will look beyond the traditional species grown in the UK, such as salmon, trout, mussels and oysters, to include research into issues with tropical species, and the potential to collaborate with developing countries to help improve their own aquaculture industries and the considerable advantage to AwF in thereby supporting its activities is obvious. As a working development farm, the learning opportunities and other activities will be significant, both domestically and internationally looking to answer perhaps the greatest scientific question of today: How to practice aquaculture research and innovation in ways that lead to development impact?
What’s next?
There is also planned engagement with emerging areas of aquaculture such as bio-marine technology and medical research. This is linked with encouraging companies to use the NAC as an aquaculture incubator, to set up an aquaculture think tank, and create associated innovation platforms. Biorefining will be explored for the potential to add value to the biproducts of local fish processing and nearly 80 percent of England’s seafood is processed in the geographical locality of the NAC. The centre will also be a learning facility, linked to education partners focusing on: aquaculture, human and animal nutrition, engineering, basic business, marketing and entrepreneurial skills related to sustainable food production. It will engage with the insurance and financial sectors, encouraging them to research and develop better strategies for risk mitigation and improved dialogue about how aquaculture can lower its risk profile.
Aims of AwF
An original aim of AwF was to pay special attention to forms of aquaculture (and associated activities) that have the potential to alleviate poverty and improve health through the provision of ‘home-grown’ food and the enhancement of livelihoods. Of course since 2004 the role of nutrition in health has received increasingly widespread coverage so it appears Mr. New and his colleagues were more than on to something in their thinking. Another aim was to recognize and support the role that women play in aquaculture and linked activities. This is now a key aim for developing country governments across the board as is also ensuring that activities are targeted at benefitting ‘grass-root’ citizens in our case farmers and SME’s. The recent ‘Brexit’ and US election results show how far normal working people feel left behind in the last decade in developed countries so top marks to AwF’s founding team for this aim. Also to be culturally sensitive, and non-discriminatory and non-aligned in religion and politics – well everyone has seen the pitfalls in misguided international political interventions in this area over the last decade! Finally we come to the more mundane but nevertheless crucial matters such as carrying out projects that are carefully monitored and assessed for efficiency, also for the AwF organisation to be transparent and accountable in its work at all times. The UK board will utilise all its various connections from local connections, trade bodies, commercial industry, international finance, international media, educational, research & development, UN family and diplomatic connections to name some of the various avenues represented on its board and available to be targeted for the benefit of the ultimate goal of helping and assisting the previously described and targeted AwF beneficiaries.
Currently Mr Spencer leads the Global Biotechnology Transfer Foundation (GBTF), which is dedicated to promoting the potential for biotechnology to support sustainable, long-term, socio-economic development.
10 | January 2017 - International Aquafeed