Author: Diego Lozano

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MedAID partners at the meeting of the STECF

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Several MedAID partners have participated as invited experts in the meeting of the Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries (STECF) for the Economic Report of the EU Aquaculture sector (de EWG 18-19), JRC Ispra, 22 to 26 October 2018.

Rasmus Nielsen from the University of Copenhagen, and partner of MedAID, has chaired the meeting, which was also attended by the following MedAID partners:Jose Manuel Fernández-Polanco and Ignacio Llorente from the University of Cantabria, Maria Cozzolino from NISEA, Lamprakis Avdelas from Greece.

The objective of this Expert Working Group meeting is to prepare the 2018 report on the economic performance of the EU aquaculture sector, to analyse and comment on the economic performance of the EU and national aquaculture sectors between 2008 and 2016. It will include specific sections on employment (e.g.female/male employment and average salaries), economic performance contrasting different segments, and productivity/employee at EU level as well as a brief summary for each national chapter. The two main objectives for the 2018 exercise are to increase qualitative interpretation of all data outputs and to increase the usefulness of the report for DG MARE’s policy development as well as for Member States and the industry.

This aquaculture report is one of the main source for providing socio-economic analysis on the performance of the EU aquaculture industry. Different reports about Economic Analysis of European fleet, processing, and  aquaculture sectors can be found here, included the previous report  EU of the Aquaculture sector published in 2016, which reported for the period between 2008 and 2014.

Interview with the European parliamentarian Mr. Carlos Iturgaiz

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We are interviewing Carlos Iturgaiz (Santurce, Vizcaya, Spain, 20th October 1965), a well-known Spanish People’s Party politician who, after a long career in the Basque Country, became an MEP in the European Parliament since 2004 and currently is Member of the Fisheries Committee.

Mr Iturgaiz has been responsible for coordinating and presenting the report “Towards a sustainable and competitive European aquaculture sector: current status and future challenges“, which was approved last 12 June 2018 by the Parliament as a non-legislative resolution by a large majority (605 votes out of a total of 673). In the H2020 project MedAID we are interested in this initiative, since one of the project’s work packages addresses issues related to the governance of the sector.

The newly approved report argues that the priority in the development of aquaculture in Europe is a sustainable food production, considering the need for different types of aquaculture products (marine and inland fish, molluscs, crustaceans and algae). The introduction of clear and homogeneous criteria for licensing across the EU, the implementation of common procedures to fight diseases, or the effective management of space are among the measures proposed to achieve this aim.Continue reading

FAO/GFCM Workshop on animal health and risk analysis in finfish aquaculture

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The General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), a regional fisheries management organization (RFMO) established within the FAO with main objective to ensure the conservation and the sustainable use, at the biological, social, economic and environmental level, of living marine resources and the sustainable development of aquaculture in the Mediterranean and in the Black Sea, organized a workshop on animal health and risk analysis in finfish aquaculture.

The workshop was held in Larnaca, Cyprus, on 3-4 October 2018 and gathered experts from more than 20 countries. The main objectives were, among others, to assess the current situation regarding early diagnostics in fish farms, regulation, capacity in diagnostics, control and prevention of diseases, epidemiological knowledge, governance and challenges for aquatic animal health.
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Health forum discussion on Viral Encephalopathy and Retinopathy (VER)

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Dates: 17-28 September 2018
Forum coordinator: Dr. Snježana Zrnčić, HVI. Zagreb, Croatia.
Discussion moderators:
Dr. Anna Toffan, IZSV, OIE Reference Laboratory for VER, Italy
Dr. Alain le Breton, VETEAU, France
Niccoló Vendramin, PhD student/Veterinarian, DTU-Aqua, Denmark

The discussion on Betanodavirus is the second topic addressed by the MedAID Health Forum, which is conceived as a platform to gather field diagnosticians, laboratories, relevant authorities in charge of disease management in the Mediterranean mariculture and other stakeholders.

Betanodavirus causes a disease known as Viral Encephalopathy and Retinopathy (VER), also known as Viral Nervous Necrosis (VNN). Since its first description during the early nineties, the disease is now endemic in the Mediterranean Sea and it is considered the most important viral disease affecting farmed and wild marine species. Betanodaviruses have an extended host range, including sea bass, groupers, flatfish and drums but the species that suffer more from this disease in the Mediterranean is undoubtedly the European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax).Continue reading

In the Spotlight: Carolina PEÑALOZA

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i) What is your contribution to the MedAID project?
In the MedAID project I am part of the WP3 which is called ‘Genetics and Breeding’. The general objective of WP3 is to develop genomic technologies and techniques to improve selective breeding for improved performance of seabass and seabream fish. I work with Prof Ross Houston at Roslin, and we are collaborating with colleagues at NOFIMA on the creation of a combined-species (seabass-seabream) single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. A SNP array is a technology that allows the high-throughput genotyping of tens of thousands of SNPs distributed throughout the genome in an individual of a species. To develop the SNP array, we will sequence the whole genome of several population samples from both seabass and seabream fish species. Molecular probes for these SNPs will then be placed on the array.Continue reading

SOFIA and Mediterranean Aquaculture

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The name of Sofia has deep 2Mediterranean roots. Of Greek origin meaning “wisdom”, Sofia was the name of an early, probably mythical, saint who died of grief after her three daughters were martyred during the reign of the Roman emperor Hadrian. Sofia is also a very popular girls’ name in many Western and Latin countries, as well as among partners of the MedAID H2020 Project. For many years, an actress (Sophia Loren) made us to believe that Sofia was a synonym of Mediterranean… beauty. More recently, Sophia has been used in Artificial Intelligence to name the world’s first robot declared a citizen by Saudi Arabia.

SOFIA is also the acronym of a well known report published every two years by FAO about The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture.  The 2018 edition of SOFIA emphasizes the sector’s role in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals. As in past editions, SOFIA makes an analysis of the major trends and patterns observed in global fisheries and aquaculture, and it reviews new and upcoming topics and areas that need to be considered when managing aquatic resources. SOFIA 2018 is available in the five FAO official languages (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian and Spanish). It can be downloaded here in PDF format, and for the first time in MOBI and E-PUB versions too.Continue reading

In the Spotlight: Sofia ENGROLA, Cláudia ARAGÃO and Rita COLEN

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i) What is your contribution to the MedAID project?
In MedAID we are working in WP1 – Holistic sustainability assessment of Mediterranean aquaculture: zootechnical, environmental, economic, social and governance, participating in the Data Collection Working Group. We have been interviewing collaborative farms in order to gather technical and socioeconomic information that will help to define typologies of Mediterranean aquaculture farming.
We are also working on WP2 – Improving zootechnical performance. This workpackage will address current gaps in fish feeding, management practices and fish behaviour and welfare. Thus, WP2 will focus on the main Key Performance Indicators (KPI) identified by the industry for European seabass and gilthead seabream, like growth rate and feed efficiency.Continue reading

In the Spotlight: Thomas SIARMPAS and Kalliopi TSAKONITI

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i) What is your contribution to the MedAID project?
The company is involved in most of the Work packages of the MedAID project. There are Work Packages, like WP1-Holistic sustainability assessment of Mediterranean aquaculture: zootechnical, environmental, economic, social, and governance, and WP5-Product development, market and consumer assessment, where our contribution so far has been to give data and information relevant to the above mentioned issues, by completing questionnaires, surveys etc.Continue reading

Meet our team – WP7 – Social acceptability and governance of aquaculture development in the Mediterranean

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Aquaculture development is one of the mail pillars of the European Blue Growth Strategy that can be also addressed at the whole of the Mediterranean eco-region. However, this development is facing many technical, technological, social and economic challenges. In addition, as is the case with other recent activities requiring for space (eg. wind farms….), aquaculture should be aware of its role within the coastal and marine social ecological systems in a way to convince the society about its benefits. In general, Social Acceptability as a concept has been rejected by the social sciences because it has been interpreted as the way of making political decisions. Social acceptability stems from major shortcomings on two levels: that of local acceptability, because of the impact the projects in question have on communities directly affected (noise, pollution, traffic, safety, property values, etc.); and that of social relevance, because developers have proven to be unable of convincing communities that projects will meet certain guidelines or expectations (sectoral policies, direct and indirect economic spinoffs, overall environmental impacts).Continue reading

Health forum discussion on Sparicotylosis

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Dates: 2-13 July 2018
Forum coordinator: Dr. Snježana Zrnčić, HVI. Zagreb, Croatia.
Discussion moderator: Dr. Ivona Mladineo, ZOR, Split. Croatia.

The discussion on Sparicotylosis is the first topic addressed by the MedAID Health Forum, which is conceived as a platform that will gather field diagnosticians, laboratories, relevant authorities in charge of disease management in the Mediterranean mariculture and other stakeholders

This parasitosis is caused by the relatively large monogenean – Sparicotyle (syn. Microcotyle) chrysophrii that can be observed by naked eye. Although once considered as a specialist monogenean species that infects exclusively the gilthead sea bream, today we know that it parasitises also other wild sparids (bogue, pickerel) present at the farm sites. Continue reading