It has been a very busy year for me with regard to research on fish nutrition covering various topics.

My associations with former PhD students have enabled me to participate with them at locations such as their new university affiliations in the Middle East and also Kurdistan. One such student is Dr Abdelwahab Abdelwarith who has invited me into his programme of activities based in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is undertaking excellent work in aquaculture covering many species of fish and also shrimp. There is a network forming with Egypt, India, Pakistan and together with my involvement we are implementing experimental investigations to push the frontiers of fish biochemistry, physiology and molecular biology to advance our knowledge of fish nutrition.

We are linking this to its importance in enhancing immune function and disease resistance in farmed aquatic animals. These colleagues have bespoke facilities for undertaking pathogen challenge tests that are unique for purposes of validation of specific feed additives for health.

We have published some good papers this year in high quality peer-reviewed journals with work focusing on tilapia, seabass, seabream, snakehead and also shrimp. I hope to report in our magazine some aspects of this work for the wider audience in due course.

Making waves in the seafood domain is a young American student at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts who is studying for his degree in Biological Sciences specialising in Cell and Genetics.

James Sibley, just 23 years old, has come to my attention from his excellent TikTok channel posts on all thing’s seafood and aquaculture. James is a natural broadcaster and orator showing an informative and balanced perspective of the industry but with strong elements of science.

He demonstrates very thorough knowledge of many disciplines within aquaculture but is keen to explain molecular and cell biology with respect to genomics including advances in CRISPR, genetic engineering and also fish nutrition. He is quite a scholar and well recognised for his achievements by his university making the Dean’s list and receiving other awards.

James has been interviewed on many platforms including the Global Seafood Alliance and the Fish Site. I am in regular communication with him, and we hope to have him write some features for us here in IAF soon after he graduates this May. Good luck to him for his degree!

VIV Asia

Last month, I travelled with our Perendale Publishers’ team to the VIV Asia meeting in Bangkok and gave the keynote address and also moderated our separate VIV Aquatic Asia Session.

This was sponsored by several companies and VIV allowing several speakers to participate internationally. This was so well attended, and the room was packed with over 100 attendees.

Of course, Thailand is a superb location for engagement with the rapid rise of aquaculture in Asia. As such, I was able to see many friends including some of my former PhD students now holding very good jobs relating to aquaculture. I wish to thank Shannon Parsons for all her help in the organisation and our Tuti Tan. Shannon is the new team member in our Cheltenham, UK HQ and contributes so much of her skills in her associate editorial capacity.

Controversial topic

Recent developments to catch my eye is the new tilapia nutrition and welfare course being promoted in Indonesia and this is of much importance to me given my academic and scientific standing. Tilapia must be given full consideration in this respect, and I am pleased to see progress in this direction as standards of tilapia rearing should be as high as salmon and other species.

 In a related area, organisations are pressuring the EU “not to use public funds to support octopus farming developments, or any other new industrial animal-based farming in the light of significant and growing scientific evidence that it is ‘harming our planet” as they might say.

The Spanish company Nueva Pescanova are currently rearing their fifth generation of octopus at their research centre in Galicia. This is a controversial topic due to the fact the octopus has a high plane of sentience displaying complex behaviour.

I have discussed this in a previous issue of IAF but it has been highlighted again by several lobbies and various animal rights and environmental groups. I take a rather detached view as we also eat pigs, chickens and ruminant animals that also have a high degree of sentience, intelligence and behavioural patterns.

The husbandry of octopus under farmed conditions is now being developed and of course we need to know more to satisfy their health and welfare conditions. We must show our collective good practice and science and try to educate the misinformed, emotive campaigners.

Aquaculture feeds a growing world population and we all endeavour to be responsible and practice sustainability in our industry. We can be proud of our concerns and compliance with high standards and ethics.

In this issue we have all our regular feature, articles and special topics as well as our news and advertising pages. The aquafeed area is truly dynamic and IAF is the premier platform to communicate your business and to outreach your product’s potential. In Bangkok, I was approached by a large number of companies wishing to engage further with our team. Please connect with us and see our online platforms and magazines. Our printed magazines are very popular in English, Spanish, Chinese and Norwegian and easy to subscribe.