Welcome to the Advocate!

James Wright

GAA introduces aquaculture news and features website

Aquaculture Ponds_croppedWelcome to the new Global Aquaculture Advocate website! We hope you enjoy your first visit, the first of many. In line with the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s mission to advocate, educate and demonstrate responsible aquaculture worldwide, the Advocate is a forum for information and insight into one of the world’s most important and fastest-growing industries. As the global population continues to increase, pressuring resources and intensifying the focus on food production areas, farming the oceans responsibly and sustainably will be crucial.

One of the key factors in designing this site was organizing the content. If you’ve attended GAA’s Global Outlook on Aquaculture Leadership (GOAL) conference in years past, you might remember Executive Director Wally Stevens’ annual poll question asking the audience members what they felt were the greatest challenges facing the industry. The answers — animal health and welfare, environmental and social responsibility, feed sustainability, investment, leadership and innovation, marketplace and consumer education — are the seven content categories listed in the navigation bar at the top of the page.

Ushering in this new era for the Advocate came with challenges, not the least of which was parting with its past. The decision to move the Advocate an all-online format was certainly not taken lightly: Since 1998, the magazine provided reliable and highly technical content about aquaculture production and innovation. We’ll still be highlighting the research work the magazine has always been known for, but we’ll be pairing it with supply-, production- and market-related news about aquaculture and its myriad products.

You’ll be happy to know that longtime Editor Darryl Jory is remaining on staff as Editor Emeritus. His experience, knowledge and connections in the scientific and academic communities hold immense value. Jory will also remain involved with GOAL as before, so be sure to say hello to him in Vancouver later this month if you’ll be attending.

The Advocate is really about the audience. We wanted the reader and user experience to be informative, useful and entertaining. We will be relying on our readers to guide us in the future regarding editorial direction and the overall look and feel of the site. It’s your industry. It’s your voice. It’s your site.

It’s an exciting time at GAA. With some new faces to maintain the great work GAA has done in aquaculture and the global seafood industry over the past two decades, it’s a time of change and growth throughout the organization. With growth comes potential growing pains. Please bear with us as we build the site into what we hope it will become: A one-stop destination for news and insights into how the aquaculture industry is moving forward.

@GAA_Advocate