Category Archives: Updates

Historic Boston Meeting for AwF

Aquaculture without Frontiers (AwF) held its first board meeting on the east coast USA during the annual Seafood Expo North America (SENA) event in Boston, Mass on 7 March amongst many thousands of seafood professionals. SENA is recognized as the largest seafood event held in North America and is celebrating its 36^th year attracting buyers and sellers from around the world.

The current board acknowledged the fine efforts of John Forster who was not seeking re-election on the board but had agreed to stay engaged with the organization by being one of the leaders of the new Technical Advisory Group. Additionally the board thanked John Cooksey for his extraordinary efforts in being Treasurer/Secretary since inception and who had resigned due to an increased workload and has been replaced by Dave Conley.

AwF have decided to expand the size of their board and are excited to announce that the three new members approved were Albert G.J. Tacon Ph.D; Ms Polly Legendre and Michael D. Lee Ph.D.

Leading by example

Trip to Banjarmasin with youngest daughter, December 2015

AwF is delighted to announce the woman of the month for March, Indah Susilowati, who is a Professor in the Faculty of Economics and Business based at Diponegoro University, Semarang Indonesia. Since undertaking her Master and PhD programs in resource economics at the University of Putra in Malaysia, she has published extensively on her major research interests in resource and fisheries economics.

In Indonesia, women participate in many aspects of fisheries activities, especially in post-harvest and trading activities, however, due to a low appreciation of gender equality, they often remain marginalised. How can attitudes towards women in aquaculture and fisheries in Indonesia be changed? Education can be a pathway forward, and, in particular, higher education can be a tool for understanding the issues. Indah Susilowati is one woman leader who through her academic leadership has developed a passion for understanding and highlighting the contributions women make in fisheries and aquaculture, and finding ways to improve their outlook.

Loaves and fishes – Charity formed for milling and aquaculture

Establishment AwF UK

The Charity Commission of the UK has confirmed the registration of Aquaculture without Frontiers (AwF UK), as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation.

AwF (UK) CIO will have a few differences to AwF (USA-Global) and AwF (Australia) in that it will connect with the milling and grain industry as well as its usual connections with the seafood industry.

This new UK charity will see a unique program created, initially called ‘Loaves & Fishes,’ which will enable it to attract donators, sponsors and supporters to engage in either milling and/or aquaculture programs as they are established.

Veikila Vuki: Cultivating the sharing of information on aqua women

AwF is thrilled to announce Dr. Veikila Vuki as the Woman of the Month for February 2016!

There are numerous challenges facing women striving to make social changes in the aquaculture and fisheries arena. Firstly, female advocates, experts and researchers are scarce in this domain and are often unique in their institutes; secondly they are nearly always isolated from each other. Keeping up to date with new information and what is going elsewhere can be difficult given the constraints of their heavy everyday workload. In addition, few active networks exist to foster information pathways. One of the few standing information networks is in the central and western Pacific, where women are most actively engaged in fisheries and aquaculture. The conduit for this information exchange is the Secretariat for the Pacific Community’s (SPC) Women in Fisheries Information Bulletin (WIF) http://www.spc.int/coastfish/en/publications/bulletins/women-in-fisheries.html), which has been ongoing since 1997.

FAU’s Harbor Branch, Aquaculture without Frontiers Partner to Alleviate Poverty and Malnutrition

BOCA RATON, Fla. (January 27, 2016) — The old proverbial saying, “Give a Man a Fish and You Feed Him for a Day. Teach a Man to Fish and You Feed Him for a Lifetime,” aptly describes the newly-formed partnership between FAU’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute (HBOI) and Aquaculture without Frontiers (AwF), a global nonprofit organization. HBOI and AwF will work jointly to support and promote responsible and sustainable aquaculture farming to help enhance food security and alleviate poverty and malnutrition in developing and impoverished countries.

Discussions between HBOI and AwF are under way for the first joint project, which is expected to commence mid-year and will involve a number of countries in Africa. It is expected that the partnership will concentrate efforts on Africa and Latin America in the early stages. Working together, the organizations will advance aquaculture in these developing countries to provide much-needed protein sources as well as economic stimulus through diversification of livelihoods and sustainability of coral reefs that are vital to maintaining healthy ecosystems. The farming of aquatic organisms include fish, mollusks, crustaceans and aquatic plants.

“Facilitating self-sufficiency and sustainability is critical in helping to alleviate hunger and malnutrition worldwide, and we are very excited to join forces with Aquaculture without Frontiers to address this important need,” said Megan Davis, Ph.D., HBOI interim executive director and a leading aquaculture researcher. “Aquaculture is perhaps our best hope to feed our ever-growing global population. As a good source of protein, fish are much more efficient to raise than other leading sources of protein, which require huge amounts of grain and water to grow big enough to eat.”

Student Travel Scholarships for Participation at APA16

WAS-APC is providing the opportunity for Students to attend Asia Pacific Aquaculture 2016 (26 to 29 April 2016).  Funding for this opportunity is provided by WAS-APC, and Aquaculture without Frontiers is facilitating the process.

There are five (5) scholarships available x USD500 which are aimed to assist with accommodation and travel and WAS-APC will organise and pay registration for the event.

For further information click here. Applications close on 5 February 2016.

Applications must be made on the Official Application Form – click here.

Women’s Travel Grant for Participation at APA16

WAS-APC is providing the opportunity for female aquaculture people to attend Asia Pacific Aquaculture 2016 (26 to 29 April 2016).  Funding for this opportunity is provided by WAS-APC, and Aquaculture without Frontiers is facilitating the process.

There are three (3) grants available x USD1000 which are aimed to assist with accommodation and travel and WAS-APC will organise and pay registration for the event. Two (2) of the grants are expressly for female students and the third is for a mature age female who works in aquaculture.

For further information click here. Applications close on 5 February 2016.

Applications must be made on the Official Application Form – click here.

True Gender Champion Recognised

Meryl Williams

Aquaculture without Frontiers is delighted to announce Dr. Meryl Williams as the first woman of the month for 2016!  Meryl’s extensive and continuing contribution to international research in fisheries and aquaculture, and advocacy of women and gender in aquaculture is an inspiration to women globally.

For the past 40 years, Meryl has worked tirelessly in Australian and international fisheries, aquaculture, aquatic resource conservation, agricultural research and development and published widely on aspects of fish harvesting and fisheries management around the world. More recently, her work emphasises fish in relation to food security and nutrition and its potential in feeding the world’s anticipated population of 9 billion people. Her contribution to women and gender in aquaculture and fisheries includes the initiation of the website http://genderaquafish.org/  devoted to the exchange of information on gender in aquaculture and fisheries from all parts of the world.

Ornamental Aquaculture Club Kerala

As an additional program to the Vakkom project announced earlier in the week Organic Life (OL) and Aquaculture without Frontiers (AwF) today organised a Workshop on nurturing the entrepreneurship opportunities in aquarium fish seed production, culture and trade among the unemployed youth of Kerala State, India at Snehasena Hall, Kaloor, Ernakulam, Cochin.

The inauguration was honoured by Her Worshipful Mayor of Kochi, Smt. Soumini Jain; Dr. A Gopalakrishnan, Director, Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute; Rev. Fr. Vincent Pereppadan, “Snehasena”; Smt.Sathyavathi, Executive Director Society for Assisting Fisherwomen, at State Fisheries Department; C.T. Varghese, Global Mariner and Dr. Vinod Malayilethu, Senior Coordinator, WWF.

Roy Palmer, AwF’s Executive Director, said “We are extremely grateful to International Aquafeed magazine (www.perendale.com) for having the vision to sponsor this important workshop. The outcomes of the workshop were to address the unemployment problem among the youth of Kerala by highlighting the prospects that can be created through Ornamental Fish Culture and Trade; investigating the aspects of quarantine and certification and ensuring quality products; exploring the opportunity of domestic and international ornamental fish trade. We were delighted that the audience supported the concept and agreed to collaborate through the creation of the Ornamental Aquaculture Club Kerala (OACK).”

Potential Eel Culture – Western Victoria

Aquaculture without Frontiers involvement
AwF was recently invited to a meeting to discuss options for reviving the culturing of short fin Eels at Lake Condah. The request was made by Deakin University, with whom we have an MOU to share and partner in like-minded projects. Communication between the Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation and Deakin University had created this event and discussion centred on practical ideas and projects for the future. Paul Liew delivered a presentation to the delegation on behalf of AwF.