A video recording is now available of a presentation by Dr Simon Funge-Smith, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific at the inception meeting for the FAO-funded project "Blue transformation in aquaculture", 30 August 2021. Please visit NACA's Youtube channel to view the video.

Video recordings of technical presentations from the webinar on Culture-based fisheries for rural development (31 May 2021) are now available on Youtube. Presentations cover technical constraints, the socio-economic and impact on communities, micro-nutrient security, monitoring and evaluation, improving water quality through stocking selected species, biodiversity considerations, and success stories.

Please visit NACA's Youtube channel to access the videos. Our Youtube channel is brand new, please consider subscribing for more technical aquaculture videos!

India’s seaweed sector is an emerging area for the development of the rural economy. A growing interest of the government and subsequent announcement of a ‘multi-purpose seaweed park’ in Tamil Nadu will boost the seaweed farming and related industries. India aims to increase seaweed production to 1,150,000 metric tons from the current production levels of 2,500 metric tons in the next five years. SMART AGRIPOST in collaboration with ICAR-CMFRI and industry associations, is pleased to organize a two-day virtual conference and exhibition, Seaweed India 2021 on 26-27 August 2021, to connect all stakeholders. The webinar will help review and deliberate on the opportunities and challenges in the emerging seaweed sector in India with regard to its various dimensions.

Join us on 8 October 2021 for the Professor Sena De Silva Memorial Oration. The topic for the oration is "Aquaculture and marine resources exploitation: reframing the issues", presented by Professor Govanni Turchini of Deakin University and organised by the Sri Lanka Association for Fisheries and Aquatic Resources. The oration will be held at 05:00 GMT (15:00 AEST) via Zoom. To participate, please use the following link: Professor Sena De Silva Memorial Oration 2021.

The joint international conference of the Sixth International Conference on Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences (ICFAS 6) and the First Asian Fisheries Social Science Research Network Forum (AFSSRN F1) is on 24-26 November 2021, via Zoom. The theme of the joint conference is The Science and Art of Fisheries and Aquaculture: Life above and below water. The call for the submission of abstracts for both the scientific (oral and poster) and art sessions (short films, photo essay, poetry, song, short story) is until 30 August 2021. Student competitions (student oral speed, student poster, digital art, and fishing for solution) are available. For more details, please visit the conference website.

The new OIE World Animal Health Information System (OIE-WAHIS) was initially launched in 2020, with an aim to develop a modern and dynamic platform to ease the burden on Members to collect and report information on  global animal health, as well as to make the information more accessible to the public. In this regard, OIE and NACA also planned the establishment of a Regional Core online reporting system for non-OIE listed aquatic animal diseases of regional importance in Asia and the Pacific. On behalf of NACA and OIE-RRAP, we encourage all members in the Asia-Pacific region to regularly submit monthly aquatic animal disease reports.

Join us on 2 September at 12 noon GMT for a free webinar on the Status of the use of Artemia cysts in fish and crustacean hatcheries around the world. The webinar is facilitated by the International Artemia Aquaculture Consortium (under formation). The webinar will document differences in practices used by fish and crustacean hatcheries in the use of Artemia cysts for the preparation of live feeds. Speakers include technical experts using Artemia in the production of shrimp, freshwater prawn, mud and mitten crabs, seabass, sabream and other marine fish from Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Ecuador, Greece, India, Spain, and Thailand. Participation is free but registration is required.

In this issue:

Counting down to Aquaculture Millennium +20; Free webinar - Fish Vaccination: Theory, Innovations and Application; Quarterly Aquatic Animal Disease Report, October-December 2020; Invasive disease linked to raw freshwater fish: Group B Streptococcus; International Crustacean Symposium 2021.

FAO will conduct a regional training course on surveillance and monitoring of antimicrobial resistance in aquaculture from 26-30 July, in collaboration with the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and INFOFISH. The course will focus on methodologies relevant to monitoring and surveillance of AMR in major bacterial pathogens of diseased aquatic animals in Asia. The training will be held via video conference. To register for the training sessions, or to view the training programme, please visit the INFOFISH website.

The Fish Health Section of the Asian Fisheries Society (FHS-AFS) is inviting you to a free Zoom webinar on Fish Vaccination: Theory, Innovations and Application. The webinar will be held on 4 August at 13:00 Bangkok time (GMT+7). Please register in advance to attend. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about how to join the webinar.