Mythbusting Marine Aquaculture
Thursday, February 27, 2020
1:00 pm Eastern Time
Presenters:
Jennifer Molloy, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Siting and Water Quality
Mike Rust, Ph.D., NOAA Fisheries
Guillaume Salze, Ph.D., Ajinomoto Animal Nutrition North America, Inc.
Jesse Trushenski, Ph.D., Riverence
Craig Watson, University of Florida
Description:
Marine finfish aquaculture in the United States represents an opportunity to provide domestic seafood, create jobs, contribute to coastal economies, and help improve community health. Significant advances in fish farming technology and best management practices have decreased the environmental footprint and increased the economic performance and sustainability of marine aquaculture.
Hear from experts about how proper siting and husbandry, best management practices, and the use of appropriate technologies and tools are minimizing or eliminating diseases, therapeutants, excess nutrients in benthic habitats, and the release of nonnative species.
Speaker Biosketches:
Jenny Molloy is an aquatic biologist who has been implementing Clean Water Act programs for more than 25 years, first for the State of Michigan, and for the past 15 years with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. She has worked in an array of regulatory and non-regulatory programs finding solutions to prevent and mitigate pollution discharges to our nation’s waters. In the area of aquaculture, she currently serves as an EPA representative to the National Science and Technology Committee, Subcommittee on Aquaculture and its Regulatory Task Force. Jenny also chairs the interagency work group coordinating federal permitting and authorization of off-shore aquaculture in the Gulf of Mexico, which continues to successfully improve efficiencies in authorizing new operations.
Dr. Michael Rust is the Science Advisor for the NOAA Aquaculture Office. In this role, he works with NOAA researchers to implement a coordinated aquaculture research strategy across NOAA and in concert with other federal agencies. Mike also works to coordinate aquaculture research activities among federal agencies and academic and international partners. Dr. Rust comes to the program from NOAA’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, where his research focused on multiple areas of marine aquaculture. He served as the Program Manager for Aquaculture Research at the Center, the mission of which is to provide the scientific information and technology needed to create viable, environmentally sustainable marine aquaculture industries and to protect and restore wild fisheries. Mike has fisheries and aquaculture experience both domestically and internationally, including in the Philippines, Haiti, Norway, and Canada. He earned a Ph.D. in Fisheries from the University of Washington, dual M.S. degrees (animal science and international development), and a B.S. in Environmental Biology from the University of Colorado.
Dr. Guillaume Salze is a fish and shrimp nutritionist specializing in protein and amino acid requirements as well as modeling of nutrient requirements. He has experience working with a number of marine species, and recently spearheaded the effort to add fishes to the list of species in which crystalline taurine may be included in dietary formulations. He received the equivalent of a B.Sc. from the CNAM-Université de Montpellier II (France), his M.Sc. from the University of Stirling (Scotland, UK), and his Ph.D. from Virginia Tech. Dr. Salze has mostly worked in academic research, but in early 2019 he joined Ajinomoto Animal Nutrition North America, where he now works as R&D manager in fish nutrition.
Jesse Trushenski is the Director of Science for Riverence and its sister company, Evaqua Farms. In this role, Jesse provides science leadership and research project management support for the company’s aquaculture-related programs and projects.
Before joining the private sector, Trushenski was an Associate Professor at Southern Illinois University and Fish Pathologist Supervisor for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game. Trushenski holds a B.S. degree from Western Washington University and a Ph.D. from Southern Illinois University Carbondale. An active member of AFS for nearly 20 years, Trushenski has worked on several specialist “sections” (e.g., Fish Culture, Physiology) and committees, and on the Governing Board. In 2011, Trushenski was honored with the AFS Distinguished Service Award and she is the immediate past president of the society.
Craig Watson has been with the University of Florida for 31 years and is currently the Associate Director for Aquaculture Programs, as well as Director of the Tropical Aquaculture Laboratory, a satellite facility in Ruskin, Florida. His background in aquaculture began in the mid 70’s working on a fish farm in Miami while in high school, and also includes 3 years of aquaculture work while in the Peace Corps in Tunisia, North Africa. His extension and research has included an extremely broad and diverse career reflected by the diversity of aquaculture production in the state. He serves on the board of the National Aquaculture Association and the Florida Aquaculture Association.
