California Aquaculture Association

The California Aquaculture Association joined with UC Davis’ CABA (Center for Aquatic Biology and Aquaculture) for a two-day summit meeting on October 13 and 14. Organizers of the meeting (Peter Struffenegger, Sterling Caviar, and Dr. Raul Piedrahitta, UC Davis, CABA Director) sought to increase and renew the connection and collaboration between California producers and the university in a variety of ways. The conference also included participants from a variety of governmental entities and from as far away as British Columbia.

The conference included a rich program with presentations from industry leaders, university faculty and researchers, and experts in the area of funding for projects. More than sixty people were in attendance from both industry and the university. The first day was filled mainly with formal presentations by topical speakers. Most of the presentations were interactive and included opportunity for questions and comments. Tuesday’s final event was a reception with an array of food prepared from products donated by aquaculture producers. The magnificent spread was prepared by Anthony Schuur of CAA along with Norma and Hanna Struffenegger. Over delicious food attendees had a chance to interact with one another and with speakers and leaders from both the university and industry.

The second day included a series of panels and presentations, again carefully designed to encourage interaction. At the conclusion of the formal panel presentations, participants were invited to tour the university’s Aquatic Center. Researchers and faculty at the university also signed up to participate in tours to California aquaculture installations. These tours will be arranged in the coming weeks.

Response from the participants was uniformly positive. There was a general consensus that the Summit had gone a long way to encourage and enable collaboration between producers and the university community. Both CABA and CAA will continue to work to encourage projects that bring researchers to work with aquaculture producers.

For program details, contact the CAA office at: execdir@caaquaculture.org.