Plenary speakers named for Aquaculture Europe 2025

Three very different plenary speakers have been named for Aquaculture Europe 2025, the conference that will take place in Valencia, Spain, from September 23-25.

Carlos M. Duarte, currently a professor at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), in Saudi Arabia, will make the plenary presentation on the opening day.

He will argue that regenerative aquaculture, defined as an aquaculture practice that increases economic, social, cultural and natural capital, is an essential underpinning to fast-track progress towards achieving sustainable development goals.

Along with his role at KAUST, Duarte is executive director of the Global Coral R&D Accelerator Platform (CORDAP.org) and chief executive of the CORDAP Foundation. Before this he was research professor with the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and director of the Oceans Institute at The University of Western Australia. He also holds an honorary professor position at the Arctic Research Centre in Aarhus University, Denmark.

His research focuses on understanding the effects of global change in marine ecosystems and developing nature-based solutions to global challenges, including climate change.

Refined phenotypes

The plenary speech on Day 2 will be delivered by Dr Elisabetta Giuffra, a director at French research institute INRAE.

Giuffra, co-leader of the international Functional Annotation of Animal Genomes (FAANG) initiative, will speak about leveraging the value of functional genome annotations and refined phenotypes.

The third plenary presentation, on September 25, will be delivered by Joan Riera of consumer behaviour specialist Kantar Worldpanel, who will answer the question “What’s happening with seafood consumption?”

The latest Eurobarometer report from the European Commission reveals a decline in seafood consumption across the European Union (EU). Only 29% of Europeans consume fishery and aquaculture products at least once a week at home, a figure that has dropped compared to previous years. However, Spain remains an exception to this trend, leading the EU in seafood consumption.

Riera will run through the recent consumption data from Spain and compare this with several other EU countries. He will give his insights into Spanish consumer trends and patterns for the main seafood products coming from both fisheries and aquaculture.

Aquaculture Europe 2025 (AE2025) is organised by the European Aquaculture Society (EAS) and will take place at the Palacio de Congresos (Valencia Congress Centre) and the adjacent Sercotel Sorolla Palace Hotel.