Plenary Speakers
Morley Knight
Morley Knight is an International Fisheries Consultant from Newfoundland, Canada. As a consultant, he provides international and domestic fisheries advice with expertise in sustainable fisheries management, monitoring control and surveillance, regional fisheries management organizations, marine protected areas, ocean management, the precautionary approach, dispute resolution, international relations, indigenous fisheries, fisheries policy, and capacity development.
Prior to retiring from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, he was the Assistant Deputy Minister of Fisheries Policy in Ottawa. He held executive-level positions at Fisheries and Oceans Canada for 17 years and worked at the executive level in the Newfoundland and Labrador, Gulf, Maritimes, and National Capital Regions.
He was Regional Director General of the Maritimes Region in Halifax during 2015-2017. From 2013 to 2015, he was the Regional Director General of the Gulf Region based in Moncton. In these roles, he led the delivery of multifaceted programs of fisheries and ecosystems management, scientific programs, monitoring control and surveillance, infrastructure development and management.
From 2012 to 2013, he was the Director General of Fisheries Resource Management in Ottawa where he was responsible for the development and implementation of fisheries management regimes across Canada as well as the national licensing and catch certification programs.
He spent many years in the Conservation and Protection Division in various positions in Newfoundland and Labrador culminating as the program’s Director where he led the monitoring, compliance and enforcement program to protect Canada’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone and the international waters outside of the Canadian zone as well as the development of special investigative and forensic capacity. From 2008 to 2011, he was Regional Director of Fisheries and Aquaculture Management where he led a diverse range of programs and was successful in the implementation of a significant self-rationalization plan for the fishing industry.
He has significant experience in international fisheries negotiations and led numerous Canadian delegations in bilateral and multilateral forums. During his career at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, he has held 12 different positions in 4 different regions. He has a diverse knowledge of the fishing, aquaculture, and ocean industries including indigenous, recreational, commercial, and international fisheries.
Kyoko Kusakabe
Kyoko Kusakabe is a Professor and program chair of Gender and Development Studies, Department of Development and Sustainability, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand. She obtained her doctoral degree in gender and development studies from AIT. Her research mainly focuses on gender issues in the Mekong region, such as women in fisheries and aquaculture, gender and labor migration, gender issues in cross-border infrastructure development and investment. Her work mainly focuses on gender and work, particularly about labor migration, unpaid work and unpaid care work, and the informal economy, along with fisheries and aquaculture. She has worked in several semi-government organizations in Japan, non-government organization in Cambodia, and both international and UN organizations.
Prior to joining AIT, Dr. Kusakabe worked as a gender and development program officer at the Cooperation Internationale pour le Developpement et la Solidarite (CIDSE Cambodia). She also served as an advisor at the Integrated Rural Development Program, Svay Rieng, CIDSE Cambodia. She was a visiting professor at the Paris Institute of Political Studies, France, and a member of the Issue-specific Supporting Committee on Development and Gender of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
Dr. Kusakabe has published monographs, book chapters and papers in prestigious journals. She has also co-authored several books on gender analysis of labor migration and women in the informal economy. Her recent book was on Fisherfolk in Cambodia, India, and Sri Lanka: Migration, gender, and well-being, (Routledge). She is a co-editor-in-chief for the Gender, Technology, and Development Journal (Taylor and Francis journal).
She has been actively involved in many development projects on gender analysis, gender mainstreaming in organizations, and gender and enterprise development. Some of her current work focuses on women migrant workers under special economic zones and cross-border investments, social reproduction of migrant workers, and migration as survival strategies for fishing communities.
Grinson George
Dr. George is a Principal Scientist at CMFRI, India and is currently on deputation to SAARC Agriculture Centre, Dhaka, Bangladesh as Senior Programme Specialist (Fisheries), where he coordinates the fisheries and aquaculture programmes for eight South Asian Nations. He obtained his doctoral degree in Marine Science from the National Institute of Oceanography, Goa University, India. His research interests include fisheries oceanography, marine ecosystem studies, and climate change issues in marine science.
Dr. George has been active in teaching, research, policy, administration, academics, and industry related to fisheries and aquaculture for over 20 years. Prior to joining CMFRI, he worked with the Ministry of Education, Maldives, and as a Scientist at Central Island Agricultural Research Institute (CIARI), Port Blair, India,where he took up the additional responsibilities of the honorary coordinator CPR Environmental Education Centre, Port Blair and Juliet Massey Honorary fellow of the World Aquaculture Society. He also worked as a post-doctoral researcher at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, UK, specializing in fisheries resource management.
Dr. George has published his research work in high-ranking journals and has co-authored several books and book chapters related to sustainable development and climate change, reef biodiversity, and marine resources. He is the recipient of the Dr. Rajendra Prasad Puraskar award from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), and the Dr. Hiralal Chaudhury and Dr. Kulkarni awards from the Central Institute of Fisheries Education (CIFE), Mumbai, India. He has received 15 Best paper awards for conference presentations, including one during the International ‘Cage Aquaculture in Asia 5’ conference, organized by the Asian Fisheries Society, Malaysia.
He is an active scientific member in several fisheries-related societies such as the Marine Biological Association of India, the Society of Fisheries Technologists and the Indian Society of Fisheries Professionals. As coordinator of the prestigious Department of Science and Technology (DST) Jawaharlal Nehru Science Fellowship (JNSF) programme awarded to the late Prof. Trevor Platt, FRS, Dr. George established a bio-optics laboratory at CMFRI, India, where his ongoing project fellows and PhD students are working on different aspects of satellite remote sensing and marine bio-optics to study water quality and its relation to ecosystem health.
Patrick Sorgeloos
Dr. Sorgeloos is an Emeritus Professor of Aquaculture, Ghent University, Belgium. He is a strong promoter of international networking in aquaculture and is still involved with many international aquaculture organisations. He obtained his doctoral degree in Marine Biology from the same university. His research interests include different aspects of the biology and culturing of the brine shrimp Artemia, and the larviculture/aquaculture of fish and shellfish. Until his retirement as emeritus professor in 2013 over 250 Master (from over 50 countries) and 70 PhD alumni (from over 20 countries) graduated at Ghent University in the field of aquaculture.
Dr. Sorgeloos has been active in teaching, policy making, research and academics related to fisheries and aquaculture. His research work was funded by several national and international organizations such as European Commission (DG Fish, DG Research, DG Education, DG Telematics), NATO, FAO, UNDP, UNIDO, UN Mekong Committee, SEAFDEC, and various private companies (Belgium, Germany, Greece, Iran, Italy, Malaysia, Russia, Switzerland and USA). Dr. Sorgeloos is a project leader Artemia and shrimp/fish larviculture projects in various countries in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas. He has also been a Referee for research projects of the European Community, Flemish Science Council, US Department of Agriculture, US Small Business Innovation Research Program, US Sea Grant, US National Science Foundation, US National Geographic Society, NUFFIC (Netherlands), Research Council of Norway, Science Council of Portugal, US-Israel Joint research programme, South African Research Council, BONUS Science for a better future of the Baltic Sea region, COST Association, Lower Austrian Company for Research and Education.
Dr. Sorgeloos has published over 400 peer-reviewed papers and 14 books in marine aquaculture, particularly with the culturing biology of Artemia in relation to shrimp and fish farming, as well as solar salt production, and with the larviculture of fish and shellfish. He received honorary awards in China, Egypt, Greece, India, Malaysia, Russia, Thailand, USA, and Vietnam including Honorary Professor from University of Malaysia in 2022, Foreign Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India in 2017, Sultan Mizan Professorial Chair, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu in 2016.
He is an active scientific member in several fisheries-related societies namely Member of the Singapore Food Story Advisory Panel, International Advisory Council Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, International Working Group of SAPEA for the topic “Food from the Oceans” of the European Scientific Advice Mechanism SAM. Dr. Sorgeloos has been involved in Scientific missions for EU (DG DEVCO, RTD, SANTE and TRADE), UN (FAO, UNDP, UNIDO), different Belgian organizations, and GIZ to different countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, and the America’s. He has been part of the editorial team of several journals, such as Journal of Sustainability Science and Management, NJAS Wageningen Journal of Life Sciences, Aquaculture International, Aquaculture Research.