World Aquaculture Society 2008 - YSLME Special Session

The following article is taken from the YSLME website

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The World Aquaculture Society (WAS) had their annual meeting in BEXCO, Busan City, Republic of Korea, 20-23 May 2008, attended by more than a thousand people from 95 countries around the world. During the meeting, YSLME project organised a special session on the Friday morning, chaired by Dr. Mark Walton and Dr. In Kwon Jang, titled “Reducing the environmental impacts of mariculture in the Yellow Sea”. Participants from China and R. Korea presented papers on innovative methods of reducing the release of nutrients, disease causing pathogens, chemicals from mariculture establishments in the region. Talks covered heterotrophic shrimp culture, shellfish disease, dietary improvements, bioremediation using macro-algae and Integrated Multi-trophic Aquaculture (IMTA).

Two of these topics have been selected for mariculture demonstration activities, IMTA and heterotrophic shrimp culture. IMTA is where lower trophic level species such as algae and filter-feeding bivalves are used to absorb the waste products from higher trophic levels such as fish or shrimp thereby reducing nutrient outflows, as well as improving the overall productivity and profitability. Heterotrophic shrimp culture is a zero-water exchange system that uses low protein diets and aeration to promote the growth of bacterial flocks. These flocks absorb nutrients from the water and provide an extra source of protein for the shrimp, thus significantly reducing the release of nutrients to the environment and reducing the proportion of fish protein in the diet thus reducing the demand for fishmeal. PDF versions of the presentations can be downloaded from our website (www.yslme.org).

In combination with the successful special session, we also occupied a booth at the WAS trade show that ran in parallel to the conference. The booth, manned by Ms. Kyungsuk Lee, displayed our latest publications e.g. The Yellow Sea: Analysis of environmental status and trends (China and R. Korea country reports, and regional synthesis) and various YSLME mariculture workshop proceedings as well as a poster display of the most recent activities in the project focusing on the development of the Strategic Action Programme and its impact on mariculture in the Yellow Sea. Special thanks go to Dr. Charles Sungchul Bae, Dr. (Albert) Kwang-Sik Choi, Dr. In Kwon Jang, Dr. Fang Jian Guang and Dr. Jihong Zhang for helping organise a special session for the YSLME, and for The Korean Aquaculture Society for their generous support of the trade show.