International Artemia Aquaculture Consortium

More than 40 years after the launching of the International Study on Artemia (an international interdisciplinary study of Artemia species and strains) that resulted in a lot of new knowledge and several new developments in fish and crustacean aquaculture, there are several reasons to launch a new initiative to guarantee the sustainable provision of Artemia and to explore several new opportunities:

• Conservation of Artemia biodiversity.
• Use of science-based protocols/guidelines for sustainable harvesting of wild sources.
• Socio-economic opportunities for integration of Artemia production as extra income in the many seasonal artisanal salt farms in Asia and Africa.
• Study of the impact of climate change on Artemia production.
• Further knowledge on basic biology issues in Artemia (parthenogenesis, diapause, lipid metabolism, etc).
• Development of new applications through strain selection and selective breeding.
• Integration of extractive Artemia farming with intensive fish/crustacean aquaculture.
• Use of Artemia biomass as a high-value protein ingredient in local human diets.
• Propagation of improved guidelines updated FAO Artemia manual and increased training and extension service.

In the meantime, we have approached Artemia colleagues from all over the world and were impressed to receive so much enthusiasm in pursuing our plans.

With this new initiative we hope to facilitate the setting up of new joint research programs, the organization of workshops and training sessions, and ultimately call upon the attention of the international organizations to formally recognize this new “International Artemia Aquaculture Consortium”.

We are launching this new IAAC website to create a platform for exchange where we can share information about the activities of our present membership, post new literature and other information dealing with Artemia, announce and invite participants for specific workshops and webinars, prepare our first formal Artemia workshop at the occasion of the FAO Global Conference on Aquaculture scheduled for September 24, 2021 in Shanghai (China).

Steering Committee

• Yeong Yik Sung, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, (Chair)
• Sui Liying, Asia Regional Artemia Reference Center, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, China (Co-chair)
• Simon Wilkinson, Network of Aquaculture Centres for Asia and Pacific (Secretariat / IAAC host institution)
• Nguyen Van Hoa, Can Tho University, Vietnam
• Meezanur Rahman, Artemia4Bangladesh project, WorldFish, Bangladesh
• Betty Nyonje, Kenya Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kenya
• Gonzalo Gajardo, Los Lagos University, Osorno, Chile
• Annelies Declercq, Artemia Reference Center, Ghent University, Belgium
• Parisa Norouzitallab, SLU, Sweden
• Naser Agh, Urmia University, Iran

Advisory Committee

• Patrick Sorgeloos (Chair)

Representing the FAO

• Matthias Halwart

Representing the academic sector

• John Beardmore, honorary member
• Theodore Abatzopoulos

Representing the private sector

• Philippe Léger
• David Christopher Garriques

Host institution

The consortium is hosted by the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific, which also maintains this website.