Q&A: George Chamberlain, GAA president

GOAL 2014_logo.jpgGAA is celebrating leadership at this year’s GOAL. What does aquaculture leadership mean to you?
To me, leadership is stepping back from the day-to-day pressures, looking ahead at the issues that await us, and working together to find solutions. This is exactly what happens at the GOAL meeting each year. It’s a chance for industry leaders to get a grasp on the global situation, recognize obstacles at an early stage, and work together to develop consensus solutions.  

Aquaculture will be essential to future global food security. What’s the most important advancement the industry can make now to ensure that growth potential remains viable?
At the GOAL 2011 meeting in Santiago, Chile, GAA identified five critical issues that will affect future development of aquaculture: 1) disease control, 2) feed ingredients, 3) environmental limits, 4) investment capital and 5) market support. Of these, disease control is consistently ranked as the No. 1 issue by GOAL participants each year.

One key to preserving aquaculture’s long-term viability is disease control. Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS) in farmed shrimp is still a major issue. How would you characterize the industry’s response to this disease and what more needs to be done?
Each sector of the industry is steadily improving in disease control, but there is still much to be done. Diagnostic labs are developing better tests, which are allowing diseases to be accurately detected at extremely low levels. Genetics companies are breeding new strains that are resistant to disease. Feed companies are finding additives that improve the immunity or resistance of the animal. Hatcheries and farms are developing enhanced biosecurity and sanitation procedures to reduce the risk of disease transmission. Processing plants are doing a better job of treating waste streams to avoid contaminating the receiving water body. No single sector can solve these complex issues. It will take a concerted effort by the entire production chain.  
The next area that needs more attention is zone management. This is already well established in salmon farming, where there is strong recognition of the importance of neighboring farms affecting each other’s disease risk. They have learned to operate collectively in terms of stocking, harvesting and fallowing. They also work with regulators and financial organizations to operate according to other best practices such as quarantine procedures, stocking density limits, carrying capacity and escape management.  
GAA is working on zone management standards, but these promise to be more challenging than individual facility standards, because they will involve commercial facilities, regulators, the financial community and other stakeholders.

Should another shrimp disease come along, is the industry better prepared? What solutions to health management have emerged from this crisis?
With each disease incidence, the industry develops improved controls and tighter biosecurity. So, each disease makes the sector less vulnerable to a future outbreak. EMS has brought recognition of the importance of a balanced microbial community within ponds. This will improve resistance to other bacterial diseases in the future.

GAA initiated a global survey on EMS. Can you share more about that and steer readers to where they can find it and participate?
The EMS survey is an anonymous online questionnaire designed to help reveal effective management methods that are difficult to discern otherwise, due to the large variation in for shrimp farmers in EMS-affected countries. It is available at http://www.gaalliance.org/survey/ in English, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Malay, Thai, Indian languages and Spanish. Farmers can either enter their responses directly online or they can print out the pdf document, answer it on paper, and email the scanned document back to the GAA office. Responses received [after the 15 September deadline] will still be factored into the analysis.

The United States has vast growth potential for aquaculture development but advancement comes at a snail’s pace. How can U.S. production start to catch up? Is it all about political will?
In the more successful aquaculture countries around the world, policies are in place to encourage aquaculture. In the United States, the policies often seem to discourage aquaculture. The United States certainly has the resources and capabilities to become an industry leader, but it will require a fundamental shift in attitude and policy to get there.

Can you share with us how important your late wife Susan’s contributions were to the growth of the GAA? What’s her legacy?
Susan took on the challenging task of administering the GAA home office during the early years of the organization when we had no office and virtually no funds. Initially, she ran the organization out of our home including managing our books, taxes, board relations, etc.  Very quickly the communications program expanded from a black-and-white newsletter to a full magazine published in our house!  Eventually, we moved to an office, where she added additional responsibilities such as managing the predecessors of the GOAL meeting (called Global Shrimp Outlook and Global Fish Outlook). Later she registered the Aquaculture Certification Council (predecessor of the current Best Aquaculture Practices program) and helped their staff get established. She would be very proud of the way GAA has grown from that tiny start to its global presence today.

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