MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Global conference on aquaculture to discuss introduction of genetics

Over 30 million jobs depend on the growing sector

A Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010 will take place in Phuket, Thailand, with more than 700 participants from 60 countries, to evaluate where the sector stands today and face upcoming challenges and opportunities.

Aquaculture has grown over the past decade to where it now provides nearly 50% of global supplies of fish as human food.

Important issues to be discussed will be the 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.

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.