The 2011 Global Outlook for Aquaculture Leadership (GOAL) conference is now under way in Santiago, Chile, with an audience of over 350 international seafood and aquaculture professionals and a program that highlights the need to rapidly expand aquaculture to meet the world's ballooning seafood demands.
 
Organized by the Global Aquaculture Alliance, the leading standards-setting organization for farmed seafood, GOAL 2011 addresses the need for growth through expert presentations and discussions on aquaculture production, technology, investment and markets.
 
"We know we need to grow," GAA Executive Director Wally Stevens said, "but how do we get there? GOAL brings leaders of the various aquaculture sectors together to consider the challenges, examine courses of action and, hopefully, begin to develop solutions that will set us in the right direction as we work to double aquaculture output within a decade."
 
After a welcome from co-hosts SalmonChile and the Undersecretariat for Fisheries of Chile, as well as Pablo Longueira, head of Chile's Ministry of Finance, Development and Tourism, Ricardo Garcia of Camanchaca will kick off GOAL 2011 with a keynote on "Managing Aquaculture Risks." The approaching gap between seafood supply and demand is a clear call to action for aquaculture, but a variety of risk factors must be considered in the process of expansion.
 
Later sessions feature status reviews of supply and demand for major farmed species and presentations on animal health management.
 
Ragnar Tveteras of the University of Stavanger in Norway and Diego Valderrama of the University of Florida will summarize data on recent and projected growth in the global production of shrimp, tilapia, Pangasius, bivalves and other farmed species. Ragnar Nystoyl of Kontali Analyse will review global salmon production. Their programs will help define how production trends are affecting international seafood markets.
 
In addition, GOAL participants will hear a report from James Anderson of the World Bank on the Fish to 2030 project, which explores pathways to raising seafood productivity in emerging economies.
 
Another key presentation will come from Adolfo Alvial. A former technical director for Marine Harvest Chile, Alvial will present the findings of a blue ribbon panel of experts who surveyed the Chilean salmon industry's ongoing recovery from a severe outbreak of infectious salmon anemia. The study is part of an international effort to share such experiences to help prevent and mitigate similar events in the future.
 
Related talks by Randall Brummett of the World Bank and Ron Bergevoet of Wageningen University and Research Center will present studies on "Lesson Sharing for Aquaculture Disease Management" and "Carrying Capacity Models to Manage Production and Avoid Disease."
 
The GOAL 2011 conference runs through November 9. The November 8 schedule focuses on global aquaculture investment, environmental perspectives and emerging challenges regarding aquafeeds. November 9 will offer several panel sessions on the changing global markets for farmed seafood.
 
In the afternoons, presentations on new innovations can help enable businesses to meet the challenges of responsibly increasing the supply of farmed seafood. Topics will include new equipment and farming practices, modeling and system control software, natural systems restoration and marketing strategies.