With the expansion of hatchery production, the demand for Artemia cysts has continued to increase. Annual consumption is now estimated at 3,500 – 4,000 tonnes, underpinning the production of over 900 billion crustacean post larvae and fish fry by a hatchery industry valued at more than USD 2 billion and the final production of over 10 million tonnes of high-value aquaculture species. With approximately 90 percent of the current Artemia production harvested from inland salt lakes, the future of the hatchery industry could be at risk and requires urgent attention.

A new international interdisciplinary approach is needed to tackle these Artemia issues and opportunities, like the breakthrough in Artemia use in aquaculture following the 1976 FAO Kyoto conference. The purpose of the workshop was to explore needs and opportunities for a new international initiative to guarantee a more sustainable provision of Artemia, both from natural sources and from controlled extractive Artemia farming integrated with salt production and other fish/crustacean aquaculture.

The workshop was held in conjunction with the Global Conference on Aquaculture Millennium +20 in Shanghai, China with international participation via video conference. The programme included technical presentations and a Q&A session with participants and an expert discussion panel. Over 400 people participated in the workshop, both locally in China and via video conference.

Video recordings of the presentations and the report of the webinar are linked below.

Organisers

The workshop was organised by:

• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
• Laboratory of Aquaculture and Artemia Reference Center, Ghent University.
• Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific.
• Artemia Association of China.
• Asian Regional Artemia Reference Center

Programme

• Welcome
  Min Jiang, Shanghai Ocean University, and Wang Qingyin, Chinese Fisheries Society, China
• Aim of the workshop
  Rodrigo Roubach, FAO
• From Kyoto 1976 to Shanghai 2021: brief history of Artemia use in aquaculture
  Patrick Sorgeloos, Ghent University, Belgium
• Report of 15 June 2021, Webinar “International workshop on Artemia pond and tank production”
  Meezanur Rahman, WorldFish Centre, Bangladesh, and Nguyen Van Hoa, Can Tho University, Vietnam
• Report of 2 September 2021, Webinar “Status of the use of Artemia cysts in fish and crustacean hatcheries around the world”
  Simon Wilkinson, Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific
• Sustainable harvesting of natural Artemia resource: the Great Salt Lake (Utah, USA) as model case
  Thomas Bosteels, Great Salt Lake Brine Shrimp Cooperative, USA
• Artemia species and strains diversity: threats and potential
  Gonzalo Gajardo, Los Lagos University, Chile
• Availability of Artemia genome: R&D opportunities
  Gilbert Van Stappen, Ghent University, Belgium
• Q&A plenary panel discussion
• Closing remarks
  Matthias Halwart, FAO

Report