The meeting was opened by Dr. A. Lindquist, Director of the Fishery Resources and Environment Division, FAO, and Secretary of ACMRR. In welcoming the members and other participants (see Appendix I), he reviewed the decision of the ACMRR to re-establish the Working Party on Aquaculture and called attention of the members to the terms of reference established. He also called attention to the study made by FAO in October 1983 giving background on aquaculture production, an analysis of changes from country to country in production, and an analysis of factors affecting aquaculture development.
In commenting on the work to be undertaken by the Working Party, he noted that environmental factors were increasingly significant to aquaculture development. He briefly described the plans for the World Conference on Fishery Management, and suggested that the Working Party call attention to issues which should be brought to that Conference.
The Chairman, Dr. Ziad Shehadeh, then opened the meeting and asked the Technical Secretary to review the organizational arrangements for the meeting.
The proposed agenda was reviewed by the Chairman, who suggested that the two review items be brought together in the first part of the agenda, with the three more substantive items to follow. The Working Party agreed and an agenda was then adopted as given in Appendix II.
The Chairman suggested that a different member of the Working Party act as rapporteur for each major item. This was agreed and the following assignments accepted:
The Chairman asked Dr. Shang to act as discussion leader for the agenda item on economic analysis.
Before beginning the item-by-item work, the Chairman asked for a general discussion of the areas to be covered in order to bring the work of the group into perspective. A number of problems were brought out. With regard to data and information exchange, the problem of withholding of “proprietary” information was highlighted. Producers are not willing to give key information to potential competitors. Cases were also mentioned in which trainees sent abroad were provided general training in a production technique, leaving critical elements out. The trainee was then unable to implement his training upon return.
The lack of adequate extension services was also mentioned as a key problem affecting all others, especially the acquisition of information and data at the production level, the identification of critical farm-level problems, as well as the provision of information to the farmers. It was further noted that in many countries a severe shortage of trained manpower is the single most important constraint.
Thirdly, the high cost of books and technical publications was mentioned as a critical problem for the developing countries, and a major constraint on the spread of knowledge. The same constraint applies to the publications and distribution of regional journals through which a more meaningful exchange of scientific information might take place.
