AQUA 2012 To Be Held In Prague

The boards of directors of the EAS and the World Aquaculture Society (WAS) have the pleasure to announce that the AQUA 2012 event will take place in the Czech Republic capital, Prague, on 1 to 5 September 2012.

The AQUA events are co-organised by EAS and WAS every six years, and AQUA 2012 succeeds the 2006 event in Florence, Italy and the 2000 event held in Nice, France. The event comprises an international scientific conference, an international trade exhibition, workshops for aquaculture producers, forums organised by students and by the European Commission Directorate General for research and many other satellite workshops and meetings.

The previous AQUA events each attracted more than 2,000 participants from over 50 countries, showing the global importance of aquaculture and specifically this event.

The theme, 'Securing our Future', has several aspects. It has obvious implication in global and regional food security and aquaculture trade, placing aquaculture products in the global fisheries market. It also refers to economic and environmental sustainability and the image of aquaculture activities.

A spokesperson for AQUA said: "Our future is what we make of it now: how we alleviate poverty; how we manage our future resource needs and especially how we educate, train and manage knowledge for the next generation of aquaculture researchers, producers and other stakeholders."

AQUA 2012 Programme co-chairs, Marco Saroglia, Jos Polanco and Zdenek Adamek, have put together a vast programme of more than 50 technical sessions that will be open for abstract submission.

Major pillars of the technical programme include environment, biodiversity and climate change; aquaculture certification; aquaculture and human health; production systems; feedstuffs, feeds and feed additives; molluscs and other invertebrates; marine shrimp; general finfish culture; freshwater fish culture; marine fish culture; seaweeds; ornamentals; aquaculture economics; animal welfare, health and diseases; breeding and genetics and other specialised topics.

The programme therefore covers many aspects of the global aquaculture value chain for contribution by authors from all over the world.

Following the approval of the location by EAS and WAS Boards, Michael New OBE, chairman of the AQUA 2012 steering committee, said: "After somewhat delicate discussions over the past two years with our partners and authorities in St Petersburg, Russia and subsequently in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the approved location in Prague is for me definitely not a 'third choice' location.

"We just hadn't considered it in our earliest discussions. After visiting Prague for the first time early this year, I was taken in by its beauty and fascinated by the centuries-old tradition of aquaculture, pond and water management in the Czech Republic. Prague is at the centre of Europe. It is an easy location to fly or drive to and the congress centre is close to the centre, with excellent metro links stopping in front of the building and with an extremely wide choice of luxury and budget hotels within easy reach."

Further information on AQUA 2012 will be published on the web sites of EAS and WAS, with abstract submission and registration available online within the coming weeks.