In this issue:

22nd Governing Council Meeting and a new Director General. NACA receives the Margarita Lizárraga Medal. NACA receives Gold Medal Award from the Asian Fisheries Society. Special address by Dr E.G. Silas at the inaugural session of the 22nd Governing Council Meeting 9-12 May, Kochi, India. Striped catfish farming in the Mekong Delta: A tumultuous path to a global success. Sign up for the NACA Email Newsletter. Diseases in Asian Aquaculture VIII: Registration and abstract submission open. Food safety and biosecurity. Ramping up adoption of catfish BMPs. Scaling up BMPs: A national workshop. 2nd Aquaclimate project meeting.

International requirements on food safety, traceability, animal health and welfare and social responsibility are increasingly stringent. The burden of compliance and the cost of certification are particularly heavy for small scale farmers who are often excluded by the limited resources at their disposal. Working in groups can help small scale farmers attain economies of scale necessary to address compliance issues and participate in certification schemes, improving their competitive position.

In Vietnam, small scale farmers and other stakeholders involved in aquaculture perceive that climate changes such as frequent extreme weather events have serious impacts on their farming systems. Farmers have started to adapt by changing the management practices. Institutional initiatives that have been introduced includes provision of budget for climate change response for aquaculture, aquaculture area planning and monitoring, government financial support, policy on mangrove planting for coastal protection and development of farmer associations.

In this issue:

Better management practices for catfish aquaculture released. 9th Meeting of the Asia Regional Advisory Group on Aquatic Animal Health. Trialling ocean temperature forecasts for fish farms. Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010: Publications. Capacity of small holder ASEAN aquaculture farmers for competitive and sustainable aquaculture strengthened.

Fisheries and aquaculture contribute significantly to food and nutrition security. About 20 percent per capita intake of animal protein for more than 2.8 billion people is from fish and for over 400 million people fish meets 50% of the requirement for animal protein and minerals. Malnutrition is still the number one killer compared to other diseases. Climate change is likely to increase the frequency and intensity of climate processes.

A global consensus has been reached that climate change is a reality and that it will impact on food production systems, among others, in diverse manifestations. We will in the very foreseeable future move into an era where consumer consciousness will demand that farm foods of every form, when they reach the table, should have a minimal green house gas emission level; the price and demand will be determined by such a factor.

The Phuket Consensus is a declaration on aquaculture development endorsed by participants of the Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010, held in Phuket, Thailand, 22-25 September. The consensus builds on the Bangkok Declaration, which was formulated at the International Conference on Aquaculture in the Third Millennium, held in Bangkok, 20-25 February 2000. The consensus and declaration provide strategic guidance on sustainable development of aquaculture considering social, environmental, technical and economic issues.

In this issue:

Relative efficacies of lobsters Panulirus ornatus and P. homarus cultured using pellet feeds and trash fish, Vietnam. Tilapia in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Marketing low-value cultured fish in Bangladesh: An evaluation of value chain. Current practices of rice field eel Monopterus albus culture in Vietnam. Self-help group makes fisherwomen self-relian: A story of success. Small indigenous freshwater fish species of India: Significance, conservation and utilisation. 

In this issue:

Vietnamese catfish - better management practices update. Is this the perfect prawn? Fish Oil Replacement and Alternative Lipid Sources in Aquaculture Feeds. Multilingual CD-ROM of FAO cultured aquatic species fact sheets. Aquaclimate Annual Progress Report 2010. Training course on application of business management principles in small-scale aquaculture.

The production from inland capture fisheries in Thailand is about 1 million tonnes per annum. Engineering the environment and fish stocking are the two major practices adopted, and closed-season fishing as well as control of fishing gears are used for conservation purposes. Fish stocking programs date back to the 1950s have been continuously conducted. This presentation provides a historical perspective on stock enhancement practices in Thailand since the 1950s.