CALENDAR

Oyster Research & Restoration:
Developing Strategies for the Future
September 8-9, 2003, Annapolis, Maryland

For more than a decade NOAA Sea Grant has supported wide-ranging efforts to counter the impacts of oyster disease and to more effectively address many challenges facing the oyster industry nationwide. Among these efforts are developing new tools for disease diagnosis, breeding disease-resistant oyster strains, modeling, rapid detection of human pathogens in shellfish and new processing methods to insure public health.

In September, NOAA Sea Grant will join with the Maryland and Virginia Sea Grant programs to sponsor a two-day meeting that will bring together representatives of the scientific, management, industry and public outreach communities to build on those past accomplishments and to chart strategies and priorities for future directions. The meeting will offer both plenary sessions and facilitated workgroups. Plenary sessions will summarize the status of oyster fisheries in the U.S.; share recent developments at the leading edge of oyster disease research; and synthesize developments for management and restoration of oyster populations. Workgroups will develop recommendations and strategies on the following topics:

• Oyster fisheries management and restoration
• Genetics and oyster populations
• MSX and Dermo - Frontiers in disease and diagnostics research
• Public health and processing
• Aquaculture and hatchery issues

The meeting will provide a unique opportunity for participants to provide substantive input that will lead to the definition of new program priorities.

For registration, hotel reservations and other information on the meeting, which is limited to 150 individuals, visit the web: www.mdsg.umd.edu/oysters/meeting

This page was last modified May 27, 2003

h/V01N3/calendar.html