Dear Readers of FAN 24,

If you notice some slight differences between this issue and previous issues of FAN, it may be because Dr Ziad Shehadeh, , Senior Fishery Resources Officer (Aquaculture) and who served as the Editor of FAN for 6 years, retired from FAD Fisheries Department on 1 February 2000. A US citizen of Lebanese extraction, Dr Shehadeh earned a B.Sc. from the American University of Beirut in agriculture, a M.Sc. from the University of Michigan in fisheries biology and a Ph.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles in zoology.

Dr Shehadeh's first post-doctoral experience was with the Oceanic Institute in Hawaii, where he became well known for his research on the reproductive biology and physiology of the grey mullet. His first service with the FAO Fisheries Department was as Fishery Resources Officer (Aquaculture) from 1972 to 1976; following FAO he joined the International Center for Living Aquatic Resources Management (ICLARM, 197682) as Associate Director and subsequently served as its Director-General. After ICLARM, he then moved to Kuwait where he directed and helped develop the Mariculture and Fisheries Department of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR, 1982-90) into a recognized centre of excellence in the region. Circumstances beyond his control forced him to leave KISR (i.e. the Gulf War) and he took a one-year appointment with the UNDP/World Bank-supported post as Executive Secretary for International Fisheries Research, where he coordinated follow up on the Study of International Fisheries Research (SIFR). He rejoined the FAO Fisheries Department in 1994 as Senior Fishery Resources Officer.

Dr Shehadeh’s main responsibilities at FAO since 1994 included the supervision of the normative aquaculture program, with special technical responsibility for finfish mariculture and development trends, and technical backstopping of field projects in the Near East and North Africa region. He was largely responsible for the preparation and evolution of the FAO Review of the State of World Aquaculture and the FAO Aquaculture Newsletter (FAN).

Dr Shehadeh intends to continue his professional career on fulltime basis and has relocated temporarily to Rockville, Maryland. He can be reached at:

7701 Goodfellow Way

Derwood, Maryland 20855-2260, USA

E-mail: [email protected];

Tel.: 1 (301) 963-6078

We have jointly taken over the responsibility of editing FAN until we can find a suitable replacement for Ziad, which will not be easy. Ziad has done an excellent job of raising the quality (both in content and aesthetics) of this newsletter and of ensuring that it includes information on important issues from all facets of aquaculture development relevant to FAO and its Members. We hope to include all the regular features that Ziad made a useful part of the newsletter, and we will do our best to include information on aquaculture developments from FAO staff in the field and at headquarters. We wish Ziad and his family a grand time in all their new endeavours.

The editors.