Monthly Archives: December 2014

‘Aquaculture without Frontiers’ Launched in Australia

Aquaculture, the farming of aquatic organisms, including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic plants, is rapidly becoming one of the biggest contributors to sustainable food production for the world.

In many developing countries, aquaculture at subsistence level is already an important source of both income and nutrition for millions of families and, when aggregated, is a key contributor to the economic growth of many nations.

Modern aquaculture can be undertaken with minimal impacts to sensitive coastal environments and can contribute to the welfare of our ocean resources, rather than depleting them, by providing a sustainable alternative to harvesting wild fish and other aquatic creatures. Additionally aquaculture is the major means to fish stock enhancement globally.

Kuching MoU

Aquaculture without Frontiers is very excited to announce the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which took place on 10 December in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia and gives some indication of the importance of our organisation into the future.

The signing of the MoU with partners STEM States Incorporated and the Association of International Seafood Professionals (AISP) was signed in the offices of Tan Sri William Mawan Ikom, Minister of Social Development Sarawak (KPS) which indicates the importance of the proposed activities relating to the future of social development and education in Malaysia, with a particular emphasis on SCORE and aligning Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Aquaculture to Malaysia’s future human resource needs.

AwF Woman of the Month – December 2014

Jenny Cobcroft learning to feed snakehead

Following a unanimous decision by the AwF Women’s Network Committee we are very pleased to announce that our inaugural ‘Woman of the Month’ for December 2014 is Dr. Jennifer Cobcroft BSc PhD, Research Fellow at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania.

Jenny surpasses all of the criteria relating to AwF processes of recognition of outstanding achievements which advance our goals and values so we have much pleasure in promoting Jenny as an outstanding individual and role model for aquaculture/seafood women for the time and dedication she has given for members of the community.

Jenny has also recently been recognised by her peers in the aquaculture sphere by being voted onto the World Aquaculture Society – Asian Pacific Chapter Board.

Celebrating International Volunteers Day (5 December)

Aquaculture without Frontiers (AwF) relies heavily on people who are prepared to devote time and effort to the cause – without this most generous gift we could never have achieved anything like what we have over the years. We salute all volunteers but we are especially keen to support our own people on this special day, International Volunteers Day (IVD).

On this day our major announcement is that we have been accepted as members of Volunteers for Economic Growth Alliance (VEGA) which is an umbrella organisation consisting of economic development organizations that integrate highly skilled volunteers into programs mainly funded through the USAID program. VEGA is involved in many and varied projects that involve one or more of the member organizations and as we engage we believe this will create many opportunities. We aim to collaborate with all of the members and to be their ‘aquaculture’ experts.

The following actions have been undertaken, or are planned, as a result of the energetic suggestions from our volunteers re IVD. We: