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ONLY Training & Education – St Andrews BY PETE SOUTHGATE
Life worth living D
Sustainability and fish welfare are inextricably linked, writes Pete Southgate
r Pete Southgate, Director at Fish Vet Group and one of the com- pany’s founders, discusses the importance of sustainability and fish welfare within the aquaculture industry. Pete was pivotal in the creation of the Sustainable Aquaculture courses with the University
of St Andrews and is a keen advocate for improved knowledge within the sector. SUSTAINABILITY means different things to different people. We define
sustainable aquaculture as healthy, productive enduring systems, which are viable and long-term, with minimal impact on the local/global envi- ronment using minimal finite resources. Focus areas include renewable energy systems, sustainable feed re-
sources and reducing the impact of outputs - for example, in processing and shipping. Welfare is a fundamental element of sustainability and is a support to all pillars of sustainability. The study of fish welfare looks at the mental and physical well-being of the animal, to provide a life worth living. The concept is to support the life in a stress-free and damage-free
environment. Vast scientific data has shown that fish do suffer pain responses and fear, and possess memories of fearful situations. In fact, they suffer as much as other production animals. In aquatic animals a major factor in poor health and disease outbreaks
is stress and damage. Constant chronic stress from poor handling, pre- dation and poor environment means the animals are more vulnerable to health problems. EMS (early mortality syndrome), for example, is wiping out shrimp populations, resulting in unsustainable aquaculture systems. By improv- ing the welfare of fish, less disease outbreaks occur and therefore less treatments are required, leading to greater consumer food safety. It is difficult to convey the concept of fish welfare. Public awareness and
perception of fish welfare is lower than animal welfare in other sectors, but it is just as important. Fundamentally, good fish welfare should occur across all species, glob-
ally, with best practice across every aspect of working with these animals. This can sometimes be a challenge in some regions, where skill resources
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and technological systems are not available. This is where knowledge transfer, education and up-skilling can play a key role, to ensure concepts are understood and actioned, to cre- ate a more sustainable aquaculture industry. The University of St Andrews, in conjunction with TheFishSite, produce undergraduate and postgraduate certificates, diplomas and MSc level courses, offering a broad range of training in sustainable aquaculture. The sustainable aquaculture courses begin in
May and September and are offered 100 per cent online and are therefore accessible to all.
For more information please visit www.
thefishsite.com/learn. FF
Above: Ardtoe Marine Research Facility
“Constant chronic stress
from poor handling, predation and poor environment means the animals are more vulnerable’
” TARGET YOUR LEARNING WITH
A POSTGRADUATE CERTIFICATE
FOCUS YOUR STUDIES ON VERTEBRATES OR INVERTEBRATES.
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Life worth living
ST ANDREWS STATISTICS
Dr Pete Southgate, director at the Fish Vet Group and one of the company’s founders, was pivotal in the creation of the sustainable aquaculture courses with the University of St Andrews and is a keen advocate for improved knowledge . St Andrews is Scotland’s first
university and the third oldest in the English speaking
world, founded in 1413.
Over six centuries it has established a reputation as one of Europe’s leading and most distinctive centres for teaching and research. With a commitment to research, the university is the perfect place to further your knowledge in the company of world
renowned lecturers, professors and researchers.
Industry insider – José Villalon Corporate sustainability director – Nutreco Fish Farmer VOLUME 38 NUMBER 01 JANUARY 2015 Serving worldwide aquaculture since 1977 Setting high standards
The aquaculture industry has made considerable progress in responsible practices over the past thirty years says José Villalon, Nutreco’s corporate sustainability director
JOSÉ VILLALON WAS TALKING TO JENNY HJUL M
uch of the early part of José Villa- lon’s career was spent in the shrimp farming sector, and like many of his peers he ‘always endeavoured’ to
take a responsible approach with regards to his farms’ production. Yet he concedes that when he started farming shrimp back in 1981, the sector’s primary focus was production, in particular acquiring the knowledge to increase both output and farming efficiencies. ‘I believe that from a commercial perspec-
tive, the sustainability principles that we rec- ognise so readily today were not on the radar until the late eighties, which demonstrates just how far we have come.’ He says his own experiences brought a
FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT
WWW.THEFISHSITE.COM/ LEARN OR CONTACT ELEARNING@5MPUBL
ISHING.COM AND QUOTE FISH FARMER
steady, dawning realisation that the aqua- culture industry needed to ensure that it operated on a sustainable level. The nutrient enrichment in the estuaries of Ecuador – ‘the country where I cut my teeth in aquaculture’ – was one of the most defining moments for him. Unfortunately, aggressive pond fertil- isation and water exchange resulted in algal blooms and significant oxygen depletion on many farms. ‘To see shrimp dying as a result of our own actions was a real wake-up call,’ says Villalon.
JOSÉ VILLALON BIOGRAPHY IN BRIEF
José Villalon, born in Cuba and raised in Arkansas, studied fish nutrition and gained his MSc at the University of Washington. He spent 26 years working in fish farming, mainly in shrimp production in Latin America, before being headhunted by the World Wildlife Fund to oversee its aquaculture programme. He oversaw the Aquaculture Dialogues there and the setting up of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC), before joining Nutreco two years ago. An outspoken ambassador for producing more with less by farming responsibly, he is a frequent public speaker at international conferences as well as NGO and business forums on global sustainability issues.
‘From that moment on, there was a gradual awakening throughout the industry; we began to notice that the improvements being made in sustainable production were a benefit to business. ‘Today we see much more responsible nu-
trient and water management and that is be- cause of work started back in the late eighties.’ Prior to assuming his current position at
Nutreco, Villalon was vice-president of the WWF-US Aquaculture Programme. In 2006, WWF embarked upon a unique and ambitious initiative to create the environmental and social standards for 12 aquaculture species groups. Delivering consensus while incorporating the
input of more than 2,500 people from a broad variety of backgrounds, these Aquaculture Dialogues took more than six years to com- plete and ultimately led to the founding of the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC). Today, ASC standards cover salmon, shrimp, tilapia, pangasius, trout, abalone, bivalves and, from February this year, also seriola and cobia. Reaching these milestones was not without its challenges, however. ‘We were criticised by some sections of the
industry and academia for taking too long,’ says Villalon. ‘Unfortunately, they had failed to understand that the value proposition of the process was not limited to the development of credible standards. Its mandate was also to create awareness about inherent problems in each sector and to establish consensus about which were the biggest impacts.’ The process also filled in the gaps where there wasn’t good data or where it was contradictory. ‘In short, not only did the dialogues produce great standards, they also established a level of ‘buy-in’ for com-
panies to become responsible producers.’ Villalon told delegates at the AquaVision con- ference in Stavanger last year that in the next
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40 years the planet will need to provide more food than it has done in the last 8,000 years. The aquaculture industry has the lowest CO2 foot- print and feed conversion when compared to poultry, swine and beef. It also has the highest protein and energy retention, and harvested edible yield, he says. ‘Aquaculture is the model for how protein should be farmed in the
future.’ He believes there has been a shift in attitudes as the industry has
grown, with everyone – from small entrepreneurial start-ups to consol- idated and organised farming ventures – wanting to implement farming practices that are more responsible, as well as seeking independent certification to demonstrate their sustainable production. But while there has been much progress by the industry from environ-
Left: Villalon spent 26 years in shrimp farming in Latin America. Above: He is a regular speaker at international conferences.
mental and social perspectives, Villalon accepts that it has done ‘a very poor job’ in communicating its achievements effectively. In particular, consumers need educating on the attributes of farmed fish and he believes this should be done through the retail sector. ‘Nevertheless, the industry shows great environmental leadership,’ he
says, highlighting the Global Salmon Initiative (GSI), founded two years ago, whereby companies representing 70 per cent of global production have committed themselves to making significant progress towards implementing industry sustainability, including being certified to the ASC standard by 2020. He says there could be some value in the GSI forming closer ties with the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), a retail and food service industry association with more than 400 members from 70 countries and a com- bined annual revenue of EUR 2.5 trillion, to highlight what the industry has accomplished over the years. ‘Wouldn’t it be great to sit at the dinner table and be able to explain
to your children that the fish you’re eating has a CO2 environmental footprint seven times less than the beef we ate yesterday?’ In 2013, Villalon joined Nutreco, taking up the newly created position
of corporate sustainability director, reporting to the CEO. ‘Sustainability is central to Nutreco’s business strategy, which makes
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