A record number of Sea Lice Conference participants attended the event, as 1200 individual logins were registered. The participants represented a broad array of professional and institutional backgrounds:
- Fish farming 13%
- Other private enterprise (other than fish farming) 25%
- Public institution or authority 5%
- Educational institution, researcher 25%
- Government 16%
- Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) 4%
- Student 3%
- Other 8%.
There are clearly a wide number of different stakeholders in the aquaculture industry, and in the scientific community, dealing with various aspects of the biological challenges involved, such as sea lice.
The Sea Lice Online Conference 2021 saw a total of 14 scientific sea lice presentations, 1 overview of current global trends, and 5 sponsored presentations.
The poll tells us that between 88% and 90% of the audience say the topics were of either high or very high relevance. Also, between 86% and 92% of the audience described the academic level of the presentations to be either high or very high.
The organisers at Fiskaaling and the committee are very pleased to have provided the scientific community and the industry with an opportunity to meet, present and discuss topics and issues of significant importance and relevance. It is certainly a positive indicator for the 13th Sea Lice International Conference in May 2022 in the Faroe Islands.
Another Sea Lice Online?
Poll answers indicate that a very persuasive 72% think that there is definitely a need for a recurring Sea Lice Online Conference, while 16% think there is a need for this. Only 3% said there was no need, or little need for a recurring conference. At the moment there are no such plans, but the poll result clearly provides the organizing committee with a clear indication that participants favour this option. The issue has not been debated yet, so there will be no new announcements made until this has happened.