The members of the Worldwide Sustainable Seafood Association recently went on an Aquaculture expedition to China. This expedition was scheduled between the 5th and 15th of June 2026. Henk Stander from the Aquaculture unit in the Department of Animal Science and a member of the association joined the rest of the group of 8 on the expedition.

The group met each other in Singapore at the World Aquaculture Society’s Aquaculture Conference. From Singapore they went to Beijing on the 5th from where they took a flight the next day to the city Qingdao in the Shandong province. The first visit in Qingdao was to a commercial sea cucumber farm from the Shandong Blue Ocean Company. This was quite a unique experience and Henk’s first visit to a sea cucumber farm. The next visit was to the Laizhou Mingo Aquaculture company (www.mingbo-aquatic.com) who produces 5 000 tons of marine finfish per annum at various locations and in diverse production systems. The newly constructed land based Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) farm was incredible to see according to Henk. The next stop was at a turbot farm producing approximately 1 500 tons per annum also in an RAS system. In the afternoon, a visit was conducted to the New Line Phage Banks (www.phagebanks.com) factory, a biotechnology company producing feed additives. The next day the Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences was visited. This institute recently moved to a brand-new state-of-the-art modern campus. Very productive meetings were conducted in the morning and a visit to the Institutes museum was conducted in the afternoon. A visit to the Ocean University of China was conducted the next day. From Qingdao the group took a flight to Fuzhou in the Fujian province where they attended the 18th China International Seafood and Fisheries EXPO with an exhibition booth from the Worldwide Sustainable Sea Cucumber Association. Henk also attended the second Southeast Asian Nations Fisheries Cooperation 1-day Conference at the same venue the next day.

On Friday 22 May 20 students and their lecturer, Mrs Yoliswa Mahobe who is a permaculture expert, visited the Aquaculture unit on Welgevallen Experimental Farm.

The Living Soils Community Learning Farm is an initiative between partners Woolworths, Spier and the Sustainability Institute. The farm is a learning farm situated in Lynedoch and it demonstrates ecologically-restorative methods to grow nutrient-rich foods to improve community food security. In 2024, after five successful years as a pilot project, the Living Soils Community Learning Farm became a project of Woolworth’s Inclusive Justice Initiative, and they remain a partner along with Spier and the Sustainability Institute.

The Living Soils Community Learning Farm continues to serve as a beacon of sustainable agriculture and youth empowerment, highlighting the potential for innovative solutions to address food insecurity in South Africa.

Henk Stander was recently invited to join the Worldwide Sustainable Sea Cucumber Association. This association was registered in Seatle, USA as a legal entity in 2024. Henk’s role will be the Senior Scientific Advisor and Operations Manager for the African continent. He agreed to join the association and took part in the first exhibition of the association at the World Aquaculture Society’s Aquaculture Conference in Singapore from 2 to 5 June 2026.

The Worldwide Sustainable Sea Cucumber Association (SSC) is an international collaboration platform established to promote sustainable management, aquaculture development, and international trade of high-value marine resources, particularly sea cucumbers, in line with scientific research, environmental sustainability, and feasible economic principles.

The Association operates with the objectives of conserving natural stocks, preventing illegal and unsustainable harvesting, and enhancing transparency within the sector.

The mission of SSC is to:

• Promote sustainable aquaculture systems (particularly Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture – IMTA/SIMTA),
• Develop and transfer scientific production technologies for sea cucumbers and related species,
• Facilitate the exchange of international knowledge, technology, and best practices among member countries,
• Support capacity building, education, and technical assistance in developing countries,
• Strengthen quality, traceability, and standardization across the sector.

Vision:

The vision of SSC is to become a globally recognized and leading reference organization that creates economic value through sustainable production models while prioritizing the conservation of marine biological resources.

In this context, SSC aims to act as a bridge between public institutions, academia, and the private sector, and to develop innovative projects that jointly support environmental sustainability and feasible economic development.

Main fields of International Collaboration:

• Sustainable sea cucumber aquaculture development and R & D activities
• Development and implementation of international projects
• Training, consultancy, and technical capacity-building programs
• Providing scientific input to policy-making processes
• Sectoral data collection, analysis, and reporting

Dr Khalid Salie has taken over as President of  WAS-AC (2026-2027), overseeing the conduct of business and the organization of the CHAPTER. Dr Khalid Salie is a researcher at the aquaculture unit, Department of Animal Sciences at Stellenbosch University, which is also the African Union |Centre of Excellence for Training and Research in Aquaculture. He was also the founding WAS-AC Regional Director for Southern Africa 2018-2023 and an active Council Member of the Aquaculture Association of Southern Africa. An ardent WAS member since 1999, Dr. Salie is renowned to have steered the formation of the African Chapter since the very beginning. Dr Salie takes on a vibrant chapter with Rapidly growing membership and active programme base.

www.was.org

Research and student training in the Faculty of AgriSciences received a major boosts with the donation of a Lindsay Zimmatic 9500P centre pivot irrigation system on Mariendahl experimental farm.

This is the first centre pivot irrigator at any of Stellenbosch University’s (SU) agricultural research and teaching sites, and Prof Pieter Swanepoel, chairperson of SU’s Department of Agronomy, said it would create new opportunities to explore and apply cutting-edge agricultural technologies.

The Zimmatic 9500P is one of Lindsay’s top-of-the-range models and integrates with its FieldNET farm management system, widely used by Zimmatic customers as well as other manufacturers’ pivots and other irrigation equipment.

Speaking at the handover ceremony on 16 October, Swanepoel said the donation and installation of the system, with a coverage of 13ha, “will play a vital role in building capacity and advancing research on technologies that support sustainable agricultural practices”.

Prof Swanepoel was particularly excited about the potential for interdisciplinary research brought about by the installation, which could connect expertise across pasture agronomy, animal science, soil and water science, plant pathology, and other disciplines.  Access to the latest technologies is an important skill for graduates from Stellenbosch University and donations and collaborations with industry partners such as Lindsay makes this possible.

Prof Sibusiso Moyo, SU’s deputy vice-chancellor for research, innovation, and postgraduate studies, said industry collaboration was crucial within the context of the underfunded higher education sector in South Africa.

Given the overdependence on the National Student Financial Aid Scheme, she said the question was how a university remained at the cutting edge of innovation. “In the end, we have to do it ourselves,” she added.

There was a strong focus on collaboration between industry and academia at the handover, with Prof Danie Brink, dean of the Faculty of AgriSciences, pointing out assistance received from the pig and poultry industries to upgrade training facilities.