GOAL Aquaculture conference starts

The annual Global Aquaculture Alliance GOAL conference opened today with a fantastic opening traditional drumming ceremony.
 

Opening drumming ceremony

Today's theme started with insights into the Chinese seafood market and consumers, interestingly a lot of Chinese consumers buy seafood online, it seems strange after seeing so much live and  fresh fish offered for sale locally that people prefer to buy their fish this way.

Fresh fish at the local market

We also heard that many Chinese seafood lovers are unsure of how to prepare fresh fish and therefore prefer to buy prepacked fillets, faced with the challenge of dealing with the popular geoduck below I can see why!

Also interesting was how Chinese seafood consumers believe it is the job of Governments to ensure sustainable fishing and aquaculture takes place, to this end the third party certification bodies that we see in Europe such as GAA, ASC and GlobalGap are not yet established here.

One pleasing slide of day was the one that indicated the shark fin trade is in decline, as a conservationist as well as a shark lover I am delighted to see this emerging trend, this has been driven by concerns over food safety, a Government crack down on illegal trade and fake shark fins being sold. I just hope it is not too late!

Dawn Purchase

Aquaculture Programme Manager