The Aquaculture Europe event is one of the premier aquaculture events in Europe each year and is a key forum for presenting the latest research, developments and innovations in the sector. It is always well attended by industry, suppliers, researchers, regulators and other stakeholders. The 2020 event was similar in that it was well attended by all, but there were also significant differences – it was all online, and it was in 2021! But the European Aquaculture Society did not let this get in the way of organising an excellent and professional event as always – although we all missed the social side! ☹
The IMPAQT project was well represented at the event, with much of the work of the project being presented. We had 3 presentations at the IMTA session. Lauriane Vilmin presented the IMTA model and results from modelling in both the North and Aegean seas. Joanne Casserly presented on her work co-culturing salmon, scallop and kelp at the IMPAQT pilot in Ireland. George Malindretos described their activity based resources allocation (ABRA) model and its use in assessing the cost-effectiveness of IMTA installations. The IMTA session was Chaired by our Coordinator, Frank Kane, who also presented an outline of the work done in the project at the precision aquaculture session.
Anastasia Lytou presented their work investigating the microbiological quality and safety of farmed edible seaweeds, which was obtained from the SAMS pilot site across 2 years.
On the topic of Circularity, we had Daniel Checa present an innovative platform for new circular aquaculture models, demonstrating the case for multi-trophic systems. Also at that session, Jianguang Fang from the Yellow Seas Fisheries Research Institute presented on IMTA in Sanggou Bay and how it is a good example of circularity in the marine.
Our Industrial partner presented their work on IMTA at their site in Camli in Turkey, through a poster by Seyma Tarkan and Kemal Can Bizsel. More IMTA methodology work was presented by Joanne Casserly and Frank Kane who had a poster on their experiences applying IMTA at an Irish monoculture site for salmon production. The microbiological quality and safety of farmed seaweed and salmon when co-cultured in an IMTA system featured on a poster by Anastasia Lytou. All these talks were pre-recorded and are still available to watch on the conference website.
Caroline Peres presented a poster on the development of a low-power underwater NFC-enabled data acquisition system for seaweed monitoring, which has interesting potential for future underwater monitoring.
IMPAQT also has a ‘stall’ at the e-booth, which served as a dedicated place online to present our work and engage with conference attendees. While the booths were nowhere near as successful as normal face-to-face events, some useful engagement and follow up meetings did come from the e-market.
Overall it was a very successful and engaging event from an IMPAQT point of view, however, we look forward to the ‘in real life’ AE2021 event where we can demonstrate the project and discuss results over coffees and beers!