GOAL 2021 Virtual Event Grand Finale

Global Seafood Alliance CEO Wally Stevens kicks off the eighth and final GOAL 2021 virtual event with a preview of what’s to come.

Árni Mathiesen — senior advisor at the Iceland Ocean Cluster, former Assistant Director-General of the UN Food & Agriculture Organization’s Fisheries & Aquaculture Department and former Minister of Fisheries for Iceland — will give the keynote address on the Blue Economy. Mathiesen is also a GSA board member.

Árni Mathiesen will follow his presentation with a question-and-answer discussion with GSA President and Founder George Chamberlain.

Janjoris van Diepen of Blonk Consultants in the Netherlands will give a presentation titled, “Gateway to Sustainability: U.S. Soy’s Promise of Blue Skies.” A live question-and-answer discussion with the audience will follow the presentation.

Travis Larkin, president and owner of The Seafood Exchange, will kick off the session by introducing the participants of the 15th annual Global Aquaculture Production Survey & Analysis.

For the 15th consecutive year, GSA will present the results of its exclusive annual aquaculture production survey for shrimp. For the second consecutive year, GSA partnered with Rabobank to deliver the forecast and analysis. Rabobank Senior Analyst Gorjan Nikolik will present. Also contributing to the presentation is Kontali Analyse and GSA’s Darryl Jory.

For the 15th consecutive year, the Global Seafood Alliance will present the results of its exclusive annual aquaculture production survey for finfish, including salmon, trout, tilapia, pangasius, sea bream and sea bass, cod and carp. For the second consecutive year, GSA partnered with Rabobank and to deliver the forecast and analysis. Rabobank Senior Analyst Gorjan Nikolik will present. Also contributing to the presentation is Kontali Analyse and GSA’s Darryl Jory.

Gorjan Nikolik of Rabobank joins Ragnar Nystøyl of Kontali Analyse and Jim Anderson of the University of Florida, both longtime contributors to GSA’s annual aquaculture production surveys, for a question-and-answer panel discussion moderated by Travis Larkin of The Seafood Exchange. The audience will have the opportunity to ask questions using the Q&A feature.

Responsible Seafood Advocate Editor James Wright will kick off the session by introducing the three finalists of the ninth annual Global Aquaculture Innovation Award, which garnered 39 applicants from 24 countries this year, as well as a history of the competition.

Nucleic Sensing Systems of Minnesota, USA, is among the three finalists of the 2021 Global Aquaculture Innovation Award for its “Tracker,” which uses digital droplet PCR to detect biological issues in aquaculture environments, improving productivity. CEO Ed Rudberg will be presenting. Read the Oct. 18 Responsible Seafood Advocate article on Nucleic Sensing Systems’ innovation.

Ace Aquatec is among the three finalists of the 2021 Global Aquaculture Innovation Award for its Acoustic Startle Response (ASR) and Electric Startle Response (ESR), which, working together, is a targeted predator deterrent that does no harm to the marine mammals that prey on fish farms. CEO Nathan Pyne-Carter will be presenting. This is Ace Aquatec’s second nomination in three years; the Scotland-based company won the 2019 Global Aquaculture Innovation Award. Read the Oct. 25 Responsible Seafood Advocate article on Ace Aquatec’s innovation.

FlipFarm, a transformational, semi-automated oyster-growing system from New Zealand, is among the three finalists of the 2021 Global Aquaculture Innovation Award. Aaron Pannell, owner of Marlborough Oysters in New Zealand, will be presenting. Read the Nov. 1 Responsible Seafood Advocate article on FlipFarm.

Following the 10-minute “pitches,” the three finalists will join James Wright and Pablo Berner, aquaculture lead-Chile for Nuseed, one of the finalists of the 2020 Global Aquaculture Innovation Award, for a question-and-answer discussion that will conclude with an audience vote to determine the winner of the 2021 Global Aquaculture Innovation award.

James Lapeyre, general manager of Laitram Machinery, and Chuck Ledet, project manager for Laitram’s SMART Sorters, will give the presentation “The Future of Shrimp Grading.”

GSA’s Steven Hedlund will kick off the session by introducing the speakers, who will explain the art of setting seafood sustainability goals.

Vidar Gundersen, group sustainability director for BioMar, a leading aquafeed manufacturer based in Denmark, will summarize the company’s Sustainability Report 2020 and how its leadership team approached setting its goals and aligning them with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Vidar Gundersen and Tordis Poulsen, group sustainability director for Bakkafrost, the leading producer of farmed salmon from the Faroe Islands, and a key contributor to the company’s Healthy Living Sustainability Report 2020, joins GSA’s Steven Hedlund for a question-and-answer discussion on the art of setting seafood sustainability goals.

Ensuring fish welfare and sustainability is a key goal for the aquaculture industry. Merck Animal Health is supporting this goal through advanced technology solutions. Join us for this brief session to learn about the future of vision technology, and how we can benefit from machine learning to transform farming practices today.

The eighth and final GOAL 2021 virtual event will conclude with the GSA Stakeholder Update, with brief presentations on the Best Aquaculture Practices and Best Seafood Practices certification programs as well as GSA’s education and advocacy work from CEO Wally Stevens; Molly Jacques, VP of market development operations; Maddie Cassidy, membership marketing manager; Devan Meserve, VP of marketing and communications; and COO Brian Perkins.