The University of Stirling have recently appointed Simão Zacarias as full-time postdoctoral researcher and John Bostock as part-time manager on the Improving Fish Welfare in Asia project.

Simão Zacarias recently completed his PhD in which he worked on a high-welfare Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) hatchery practice project, collaborated by Lyons Seafood, Global Aquaculture Alliance and Seajoy Seafood. The main focus of his project was to find alternatives practices to replace unilateral eyestalk ablation in intensive commercial shrimp hatcheries and evaluate the impact of the alternatives in the shrimp production chain. As part of his research he spent time working with Fish Vet Group Asia at their research facilities in Chonburi, Thailand (Now the INVE Tropical Aquaculture Research Centre).

The significance of Simão’s work was recognised in 2020 when he won a prestigious award from the Global Aquaculture Alliance.

He has a BSc with Honours in Marine Biology from Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique; and an MSc in Aquaculture from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil. He has laboratory and commercial level experience of shrimp farming from maturation to grow-out, broodstock nutrition, nutritional analysis, disease challenge and teaching. In addition, he has good knowledge of auditing processes performed in shrimp sites for certification.

John Bostock has a background in aquaculture sector consultancy and project management, including coordinating EU collaboration projects and work packages. Under two rounds of the EU funded AQUAEXCEL project he managed transnational access to the consortium’s 39 research infrastructures. In the AqASEM project, which aimed to strengthen links between the aquaculture sectors in Europe and Asia he led the workpackage on aquatic animal health. In the following EURASTIP project he contributed to the workpackage on education and training.

John has visited Thailand and Vietnam on several occasions to visit universities and aquaculture enterprises and to participate in workshops and conferences. He was also involved in facilitating a virtual sandpit in 2020 involving researchers from the UK, Vietnam and Bangladesh to develop research proposals relating to the role of sustainable aquaculture in contributing to nutrition, health and food system resilience.