At the opening session of the Aquaculture Europe 2010 event, organised by the European Aquaculture Society (EAS) in Porto, Portugal, Mr. Courtney Hough, General Secretary of the Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP), was presented with an Honorary Life Membership of EAS.

Honorary Life Membership is the highest EAS award and is given to those persons that have had a marked impact on the development of European aquaculture.  Since 1981, EAS has bestowed this award on only 8 persons, including G. Ravagnan (Italy, since 1981), Dr. E. Monten (Sweden, since 1987 †), Dr. Bernard Chevassus-au-Louis (France, since 1989), Dr. Eric Edwards (UK, since 1991), Peter Hjul (UK, since 1993 †), Prof. Trygve Gjedrem (Norway, since 1995), Mr. J. Bally (Martinique, since 1997) and most recently in 2000, Dr. Colin Nash (USA).

The award was presented by the EAS 2008-2010 President Selina Stead, who kept the audience waiting as long as possible before announcing the winner. Selina described Courtneys’ many contributions to European aquaculture, notably his role in the transformation of the Federation Européenne de Salmoniculture in 1994 to become the FEAP of today; his positioning of aquaculture in the European Commission Advisory Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture; in encouraging the Commission to make the first aquaculture strategy in 2002 and his ongoing support of aquaculture issues to expert hearings to the Committee on Fisheries of the European Parliament.

In the mid 1990s – Patrick Lavens (EAS President at the time), Melanie Mercer (then Director of AquaTT) and Mario Pedini (FAO) identified with Courtney the need for dissemination and research and better communication with the sector. This led to the EU initiatives Aquaflow and then on to Profet, PRofet Policy and Aquainnova. Moving from dissemination to integrating best governance and policy development with research needs….

As Selina Stead pointed out, “Courtney has also been a long term supporter of EAS - through aquaculture dissemination projects that go back to AquaFlow in 1998 and continue today, 12 years later, with AquaInnova. He has always been a very strong advocate of multi-disciplinary research - especially that carried out for and with the industry sector. I don’t think that there is anyone in this room, or even outside it, that can dispute the fact that this indeed represents exceptional service to the development of the sector and in furthering EAS objectives”.

Judging from the appreciation showed by the audience, Courtney Hough was a deserving and popular awardee.

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Photo caption: Courtney Hough with EAS Presidents Selina Stead (2008-2010) and Yves Harache (2010-2012).

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Aquaculture Europe 2010 is the annual conference and trade event of the European Aquaculture society. Held in Porto, Portugal from October 5-8, AE2010 attracted more than 1100 participants from 49 countries. AE2010 put the focus on the future of marine aquaculture in Europe, at a time when the European Commission has published its Communication on the strategy for the development of European aquaculture. Although global aquaculture continues to grow significantly, production growth in Europe is considerably lower. The challenge is to demonstrate sustainable development, while producing products that are competitive with those originating from other regions in the global market.

AE2010 addressed many topics related to island, coastal and ocean aquaculture, but also covered the production of freshwater species. Parallel conference sessions included land-based systems, estuarine, coastal lagoon, coastal and offshore aquaculture, encompassing many species from shellfish to fish to marine plants. AE2010 also considered the specific issues related to production on Mediterranean islands and in Europe’s Outermost Regions.

More at www.easonline.org