Lara Stuthmann

Report of GLOMAR PhD student Lara Stuthmann about her participation at Aquaculture Europe 2021 held in Funchal, Madeira from 4 – 7 October 2021

“Aquaculture Europe 2021” was organized by the “European Aquaculture Society (EAS)” and took place under the theme “Oceans of Opportunity” from 4 - 7 October 2021, as an in-person event on the island of Madeira, Portugal. Madeira is an island of volcanic origin and located in the North Atlantic approximately 500 km west of Morocco. The conference assembled a diverse group of people involved in the European aquaculture sector, including foremost scientists, but also traders and practitioners. The local committee did a great job organizing a safe event considering the current circumstances. Approximately 800 oral-presenters introduced their research in eight parallel sessions spread over the event area, and e-posters were accessible over computer terminals next to the session rooms. The “welcome drinks” on the first evening and the traditional “Presidents Reception” on Wednesday 6 of October were held in the spacious out-door area of the location. This gave the participants the ideal opportunity to network in a safe atmosphere and enjoy the view over the Atlantic coast. During the whole event, the relief and happiness to be able to discuss scientific ideas in-person again was omnipresent, as well as the opportunity to meet potential new collaboration partners face to face.

I was able to present my recent work entitled “Increasing irradiances increase antioxidant activity, total phenolic content and affect photosynthesis of economically important macroalga sea grapes, Caulerpa lentillifera” in a 15 minutes talk in the session “Micro/ Macroalgae” as one of the first talks during the conference on Tuesday morning. This gave me the opportunity to receive valuable feedback from many different scientists interested in my work or even working on related issues throughout the following days. The session about algae was only one of many interesting sessions with topics ranging from the role of artificial intelligence in aquaculture, over aquaculture and climate change to sessions highlighting the role of low-trophic organisms and integrated multitrophic aquaculture in the current aquaculture sector of Europe. These sessions were of special interest for me, as they often involve the different applications of seaweeds in aquaculture practices, and the talks inspired me to formulate further objectives for my own research.

Besides the interesting new encounters I made, I was able to meet colleagues, which I worked with during my bachelor and master studies and didn’t meet since. Different local and international companies and institutes featured their work at the on-site trade-show and I received interesting insights in the commercial production of microalgae for food, cosmetics and the feed market and several universities involved in aquaculture research.

Even though the program of the conference was very dense, I was able to see a bit of the beautiful island of Madeira together with a group of old and new acquaintances.

I am very grateful to GLOMAR for providing me the opportunity to patriciate at the “Aquaculture Europe 2021”. I returned very inspired and motivated back to Bremen and I sincerely hope that these in-person events will become slowly again an essential part of our scientific work.