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The South West Aquaculture Network held its AGM and first conference on Thursday 28th October 2021 at Kingston Maurward College near Dorchester. Kingston Maurward house and gardens provided the perfect Autumn backdrop to this event, the first sector orientated event for the South West.
Over 75 delegates from across the UK attended a varied agenda together with a Market Place for networking. Dedicated time was given to the Market Place as it was felt that the demand for networking would be high after such a long period of only virtual events.
The event was made possible by the kind sponsorship of Dorset Council, Dorset Local Enterprise Partnership, MUKSW, RS Aqua, The British Trout Association, Kingston Maurward College, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, Marine Farm Services, Brooks Kebbey, BCP Council, The Centre for Excellence in Livestock (CIEL) and Dorset Coast Forum. The breadth of sponsorship genuinely reflects the breadth of membership of SWAN which generates support from the industry itself plus academia, R&D, regulatory, marine and maritime, public sector and specialist membership bodies.
The keynote speaker was Elena Piana of Noola Redclaw Ltd who specifically highlighted the public sector support she had received in establishing her pilot in Dorset. Dr Neil Auchterlonie talked about the important work of Seafood 2040 in supporting this emerging sector in England and Wales and Harriet Yates-Smith considered PR and perceptions of language in promoting and marketing seafood.
Dr Thomas Stamp of University of Plymouth talked about the important work being carried out with Offshore Shellfish in Lyme Bay in tracking species to assess habitat use. John Sellgren from Dorset Council highlighted the importance to this emerging key sector to Dorset’s varied and complex economy.
Soap box sessions of 5 minutes each gave a short and dynamic opportunity for Carbon Kapture, 5g Rural Dorset and Seafish to illustrate their programmes of diverse work amongst the industry.
The panel session focused on the One Health agenda with Kevin Brooks chairing a panel of six: Professor Grant Stentiford, Cefas, Dr Lawrence Brown, CIEL, Imogen Davenport, Dorset Wildlife Trust, Elena Piana, Noola Redclaw, Oliver Robinson, British Trout Association and Ryan Mowat of RS Aqua. A couple of questions had been previewed by the panel and the rest came from the floor. The thirty minutes dedicated to this session passed far too quickly.
Claude Kaplan, Hatch Accelerator then gave an illuminating illustration of how to address the problems and options of setting up a national aquaculture innovation centre. Oliver Robinson representing a large and important freshwater sector gave the BTA’s vision for the future.
The final speaker of the day Brett Trafford from Fawley Waterside gave an insight into The Intelligent Merchant City for Fawley Waterside; regeneration at its most imaginative and demanding for a former power station site with significant local issues and being within the boundary of a National Park.
SWAN looks forward to the 2022 conference which we hope to hold in the west of the region.