NRSP 8 Aquaculture Minutes.

January 10, 2004

A total of 65 people attended the Workshop/meeting. John Liu (Auburn, catfish coordinator, zliu@acesag.auburn.edu), coordinator, Tom Kocher, Thomas.d.kocher@unh.edu  (U New Hampshire, tilapia coordinator), Chair, Greg Warr, warrgw@musc.edu  (MUSC), Secretary, A Alcivar-Warren, alcivar.warren@tufts.edu  (Tufts) Shrimp Coordinator, Pat Gaffney, pgaffney@udel.edu (U Delaware), oyster coordinator, Caird Rexroad, crexroad@ncccwa.org.usda.gov (NCCCWA), salmonid coordinator), Mark Westerman, mwesterman@kentseatech.com (Kent SeaTech, striped bass coordinator), M. Purcell, maureenp@washington.edu (U Washington), A. Karsi, karsi@cvm.msstate.edu (Missippi State U), R.Li, (ARS/LGRU),  Overturf, kennetho@uidaho.edu  (ARS Hagerman), J. Yang, jinzeng@hawaii.edu  (U. Hawaii), M. Rise, mrise@uwm.edu  (U. Wisconsin), H. Katib, hkhatib@wisc.edu (U. Wisconsin), R. Yant, yant@tecinfo.com (Harvest Select), S. Gahr, sgahr@ncccwr.ars.usda.gov (NCCCWA), G. Waldbieser, gwaldbieser@ars.usda.gov  (USDA CGC Stoneville), P. Brayton, pbrayton@csrees.usda.gov (USDA/CREES), X. Guo, xguo@hsrl.rutgers.edu  (Rutgers), Y. Wang, wang@hsrl.rutgers.edu  (Rutgers), S. Omhault, stig.omholt@cigene.uo  (Norway), D. Schlipalius, david.schlipalius@entm.purdue.edu   (Purdue), R. Zaminkalam, reza.zaminkalam@adelaide.edu.au (U of Adelaide, Australia),  T. Yin, yintn@ORNL.gov  (ORNL), T. Rabic, tarik.rabic@wur.ne  (Wageningen U, Netherlands), B. Trumble, bill.trumble@unh.edu (U New Hampshire), R. Phillips, phillipsr@vancouver.wsu.edu  (WSU) A. Mileham, amileham@pic.com (Sygen International),  C. Matthewson cmathew@bcgsc.ca  (GSC Vancouver), T. Vuong, tvuong@uiuc.edu  (U. Illinois) B. Cuthbertson, cuthbebj@musc.edu  (MUSC), T. Katagiri, takakata@s.kaiyodai.acjp  (Tokyo), E. Peatman, peatmen@auburn.edu  (Auburn), C. He, che@acesag.auburn.edu  (Auburn), B. Somridhivej, somribe@aurburn.edu  (Auburn), P. Baoprasertkul, baoprpu@auburn.edu  (Auburn), B. Koop, bkoop@uvic.ca  (U Victoria), G. Corley-Smith, corlegescience@oregon.universitystate.edu    (OSU), I. Hirono, hirono@s.kaiyodai.acjp (Tokyo), T. Aoki, aoki@kaiyodai.acjp  (Tokyo), J. Yao, jianbo.yao@mail.wvu.edu ( WVaU), A. Stewart, abarker@miv.wvu.edu  (WvaU) , G. Hulata, vlagua@volcani.agri.gov.il  (Israel), C. Couch, crcouch@unity.ncsu.edu  (NCSU), A. Garber, afgarber@unity.ncsu.edu  (NCSU), M Syed, mohesina.syed@veths.no  (Norway), R. Foxall, rafoxall@geromebc.ca  (Genome BC, Canada), W. Davidson, wdavidson@sfu.ca  (Simon Frasier U), C. Bayne, baynec@science.oregonstate.edu  (OSU), K. Gregg, keqim.gregg@viagen.com  (Viagen), E. Bengten, ebengten@microbio.umsmed.edu  (U Miss), S. Quiniou, squiniou@ars.usda.gov     (USDA/CGRU), C. Artieri, cgartier@sfu.ca  (Simon Fraser U), L. Mitchell, lmitchel@sfu.ca (Simon Fraser U), S. Parisotto, sep@sfu.ca (Simon Fraser U), S. Ng (Simon Fraser U), J. Hansen, hansenj@umbi.umd.edu  (COMB), K. Brown, khbrown@mail.wsu.edu  (WSU), K. Olek, olek@biopsytec.com  (U Bonn, Germany), B. Robison, brobison@uidaho.edu  (U Idaho), R. drew, redrew@wsu.edu  (WSU), K. Nichols, Krista.nichols@noaa.gov  NOAA/NMFS, Y.Pulti, ypulti@nccwa.ars.usda.gov  (USDA NCCCWA), M. Santos, mudjiesantos@yahoo.com  (Tokyo), M. Yasuike, yasuike@yahoo.com (Tokyo).

I: Call to order

II. Introduction of industry reps, R. Yant, J. Carlberg, M. Westerman, National Program Leader Muquarrab Qureshi, and of the new species group, striped bass.

III. Old Business

1. Species Reports: These were deferred for later E-submission.

Database coordination. Dr Kocher explained that the Ag station directors had assigned resources from NRSP8 to database coordination at Iowa State U, and introduced James Reecy to explain the databases. There followed quite a long and lively discussion while the meeting attendees attempted to find out exactly how the database initiative would benefit them. The audience opinions appeared to range from mildly skeptical to hostile.

2. Administrators reports. Dr Trumble briefly explained the history of NRSP8 and indicated that anyone could join NRSP8 as a station (even international participants) and that attendance at the Workshop was open to all, and that anyone could serve as species coordinator within aquaculture. Dr Qureshi deferred his report.

3. 2005 workshop. Dr Kocher was warmly commended for his organization of a successful workshop in 2004. Greg Warr was introduced as organizer of the 2005 workshop. Formats were discussed, and it was agreed that abstracts should be solicited and the workshop consist of a mixture of invited speakers and those selected on the basis of the abstracts. It was agreed that the workshop should be followed by a reception. It was agreed that NRSP8 funds should be used to hire the Tiki Hut and host a reception at which the aquaculture posters would be on view. Funds to cover the food and beverages would be sought from elsewhere (participant contributions, industry sponsors were 2 suggestions).

IV. New Business.

  1. NRSP8. There was a lively discussion of the necessity for all NRSP8 stations to submit annual reports. Segments of the audience remained unconvinced. See item 3 below.
  2. Executive Committee. It was decided that each of the 6 species coordinators should rotate, and be replaced (or relected) by election. Workshop attendees would self-identify their species group(s) affiliations, for voting purposes, by Email. Rotation of the coordinators will take place in a staggered fashion to avoid disruption. The process will be organized and implemented by Dr J. Liu.
  3. It was agreed that future annual station reports should be submitted to the chair and species coordinators well in advance of the annual meeting, but no definition of “well in advance” was adopted.
  4. Budget for NRSP8 Aquaculture. Appropriate expenditures of NRSP8 funds were discussed. Approved uses included a) hire of the Tiki Hut for a reception/poster session, b) funding of students/ postdocs and invited speakers to travel to PAG, c) funding of the coordinator to travel to DC for appropriate administrative and scientific meetings relevant to NRSP8 Aquaculture business. Potential expenditures that met with critical discussion included funding ourselves to travel to PAG, and a proposal to sponsor members to travel to WAS in Hawaii.
  5. Nominations and Election to Secretary. The only nominee was Dr Caird Rexroad. He was elected by popular acclaim.
  6. Web page construction for NRSP8 Aquaculture. A proposal by Caird Rexroad to host the website at NCCCWA was approved by popular acclaim.
  7. Coordination efforts. These were not addressed.
  8. Other issues. It was agreed that the regional project (NE-186) is now redundant because the coordination functions will fall under NRSP-8.   NE-186 will be allowed to expire at the end of the year.

V. Meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted, Greg Warr

Workshop Summary:

A total of 22 talks was scheduled, and 21 were given. Of these, 11 dealt with salmonids, 4 with catfish, 2 with striped bass, 1 with tilapia, 2 with shrimp, and 1 with oyster. One talk was an excellent overview of the JGI. The topics ranged from presentations of tools that had been developed for genomic research to investigations of specific research topics. It was clear that the Canadian salmon genome project (GRASP) is a model of its kind, and leads all other aquaculture species in genomic enablement. Investment over the currently-funded GRASP project period is $6M comprised of federal funding and local match. Although genomic enablement of other teleost species was not specifically evaluated, it is clear that trout, catfish and tilapia are making significant progress (e.g. BAC libraries, EST resources, microarrays that are in some cases beyond the pilot stage) but that striped bass is deficient in genomic tools. The ESTs available for salmonids (both the salmon and trout) exceed >196,000. The ESTs from catfish exceed 46,000 that are already available from the GenBank.  There is a physical map (including mainly fingerprint contigs) for salmon and tilapia. From the talks presented it appears that genomic tools are being developed for shrimp and oyster, and that pilot microarrays (up to a few thousand sequences) are starting to be used in these species.