GAA Partners With Preferred Freezer, UMass Dartmouth To Build Aquaculture Facilities Database
The Global Aquaculture Alliance is partnering with Preferred Freezer Services and the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth on a project to build a global database of aquaculture facilities, including processing plants, farms, hatcheries and feed mills.
The project is championed and funded by John Galiher, CEO of Preferred Freezer Services, a member of the GAA board of directors and a 1984 UMass Dartmouth graduate. Preferred Freezer Services is a GAA governing member, a sponsor of GAA’s GOAL 2015 conference in Vancouver, Canada, and the sponsor of the 2015 Global Aquaculture Innovation & Leadership Award.
A four-person student team led by Dr. David Koop, a UMass Dartmouth computer and data science professor, will collect, organize and analyze the data and populate the database, for the proprietary use of GAA and Preferred Freezer Services. UMass Dartmouth recently added a data science program.
“This project is both an incredible gesture by John Galiher and the folks of Preferred Freezer Services and a reflection of the program and student excellence of the UMass Dartmouth data science program,” said GAA Executive Director Wally Stevens. “The data will serve to provide focus for the educational work that GAA undertakes with aquaculture producers around the world. GAA strongly believes in the role of education to make improvements in aquaculture.”
The project officially kicks off with a May 26 ceremony at UMass Dartmouth.
Click here to read the press release.
Pictured from left to right in the front row is the project team: Chaitanya Chandurkar, Kevin Lydon, Manidipa Banerjee, Phil Igoe and Faculty Advisor Dr. David Koop, Data Science & Computer & Information Science.
Pictured from left to right in the back row are Larry Faschan (Preferred Freezer), Jack Moynihan (UMass Dartmouth), Ryan Martin (Preferred Freezer), Molly Jaques (GAA), Wally Stevens (GAA), Chancellor Divina Grossman (UMass Dartmouth), John Galiher (Preferred Freezer), Dr. Robert Peck (UMass Dartmouth, Dean of College of Engineering), Lara Stone (UMass Dartmouth Foundation) and Dr. Ram Bala (UMass Dartmouth, Associate Dean of Engineering).
About GAA
The Global Aquaculture Alliance is an international, non-profit trade association dedicated to advancing environmentally and socially responsible aquaculture. Through the development of its Best Aquaculture Practices certification standards, GAA has become the leading standards-setting organization for aquaculture seafood.
