The Global Aquaculture Alliance, Preferred Freezer Services and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth are partnering on a project to build a global database of aquaculture facilities, including processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills.

The project is championed and funded by John Galiher, CEO of Preferred Freezer Services, a member of the GAA board of directors and a 1984 UMass Dartmouth graduate. Preferred Freezer Services is a GAA governing member, a sponsor of GAA’s GOAL 2015 conference in Vancouver, Canada, and the sponsor of the 2015 Global Aquaculture Innovation & Leadership Award.

A four-person student team led by Dr. David Koop, a UMass Dartmouth computer and data science professor, will collect, organize and analyze the data and populate the database, for the proprietary use of GAA and Preferred Freezer Services. UMass Dartmouth recently added a data science program.

“This project is both an incredible gesture by John Galiher and the folks of Preferred Freezer Services and a reflection of the program and student excellence of the UMass Dartmouth data science program,” said GAA Executive Director Wally Stevens. “The data will serve to provide focus for the educational work that GAA undertakes with aquaculture producers around the world. GAA strongly believes in the role of education to make improvements in aquaculture.”

The project officially kicked off with a May 26 ceremony at UMass Dartmouth.