The dissemination and training phase of this project is now under way with a workshop being held at AQUA 2006 in Florence on Friday 12 May and an on-farm training session for aquaculture industry personnel to follow at Brindisi (Italy) from 19 to 21 June 2006.

The Workshop at Florence, starting at 13.50, will have presentations from the partners in the project, bringing together expertise in a range of water treatments being developed and analysed on farms in Denmark, France, Italy and UK.

The meeting will be chaired by Nick Read from FEAP and in the first session the speakers will be Courtney Hough of FEAP explaining EU Policies and Issues, Vincenzo Zonno from University of Lecce talking about the overall aims of the project and Brigide Loix explaining Engineering and Economics in Water Treatment.

After a general question and comment session and a coffee break the second session will cover in detail the research work taking place on the farms. Jean-Paul Blancheton of IFREMER will present on Murgat, a through flow trout farm in France, Bob Lovitt from University of Wales, will describe Hoghoj, a freshwater recirculation farm in Denmark, Licinio Corbari will talk about the work at Maribrin, a flow through Marine farm in Italy and David Fletcher will explain the Bluewater Flatfish Farm that grows turbot in a recirculation unit in North Wales.

There will then be a third session considering Waste Assessment and Options with a round table discussion and the opportunity to question the speakers and to raise detail matters of interest.

The AquaEtreat Project is establishing sound science in what is an increasing area of interest in the industry and will lay the foundations for reduced environmental impact and improved public perception of aquaculture. With the increased attention to water quality resulting from the Water Framework Directive   now being seen in EU Member States, the outcomes of AquaEtreat Project will be of interest to all fish farmers and are likely to establish new levels of best practice.

Attendance at the Workshop is free (funded by EU) to those attending AQUA 2006. AquaEtreat workshop is situated in the exhibition hall. Besides conference participants, visitors to the exhibition can also attend the workshop. Those wishing to attend can register in advance at the project website www.aquaetreat.org.

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