The workshop Indigenous Participation in Aquaculture – the Pacific Experience was held as a day-and-a-half session in the Australasian Aquaculture 2004 conference at the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre, Darling Harbour, on 27–28 September 2004. Australasian Aquaculture 2004 was a joint venture of the National Aquaculture Council, the World Aquaculture Society’s Asian-Pacific Chapter and the Tasmanian Aquaculture Council. It was hosted by the NSW Department of Primary Industries and sponsored by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry and the Fisheries R&D Corporation. It was the first in a biennial series of conferences to be held in different states of Australia to assist in promoting the development of sustainable aquaculture technologies in Australia and the wider Asia-Pacific region.

A major aspect of the workshop Indigenous Participation in Aquaculture – the Pacific Experience was to promote exchange of information and experiences between researchers, government representatives and industry involved in aquaculture development in the Pacific. The SPC Aquaculture Section has formed an informal working group (the Pacific Aquaculture Working Group) in support of this objective, and this workshop was an activity of the Pacific Aquaculture Working Group.

The workshop also recognised the increasing interest in aquaculture as an industry that can provide benefits for rural Indigenous communities in Australia as well as in the Pacific Islands region. The Pacific has a diverse and vibrant tropical aquaculture industry, and has many commodities common to Australia (pearls, shrimp, sea cucumber, etc.). An additional aim of the workshop was to capture the experience of Pacific Islands aquaculture to develop linkages to support Indigenous aquaculture development in Australia.