Renamed the Wallace R. Stevens Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018, when Stevens was recognized, the Lifetime Achievement Award was established in 2004 to recognize individuals whose leadership, integrity, and commitment to responsibility resulted in significant and enduring advancements in the seafood sector.
The recipient of this year’s Wallace R. Stevens Lifetime Achievement Award at GSA’s GOAL: The Responsible Seafood Conference, to take place in Seattle on October 4, is George Chamberlain, a true ambassador for aquaculture and one of the world’s most respected aquaculture professionals, especially in the field of shrimp breeding and farming.
Chamberlain’s career in aquaculture spans more than four decades. He co-founded the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GSA) along with a group of like-minded individuals following a WAS meeting in Seattle in February 1997 and chaired the Best Aquaculture Practice (BAP) Standards Oversight Committee for the first 12 years of its existence. Today, BAP is the world’s largest and most comprehensive aquaculture certification program. Beginning in 2023, Chamberlain plans to reduce his role in GSA to focus more on The Center for Responsible Seafood (TCRS), in the coming years.
“George was among the early visionaries 25 years ago for a global aquaculture organization. He then took the vision, founded the Global Aquaculture Alliance, and is responsible for what that organization has become,” said Wally Stevens, GSA chair. “George is a bit of an aquaculture scientist, researcher, practitioner, and convener. But most of all he is one of the most respected individuals in the aquaculture world. Now he moves on to his next vision, TCRS, where he will continue to serve as president. How fortunate we have been, and the best is yet to come.”
“George is known the world over for his aquaculture knowledge, particularly in regards to shrimp breeding and farming. But it’s his forward-thinking approach and abilities as a convener that have helped move the dial on some of the key challenges and opportunities facing aquaculture and seafood in general. The industry is in a better place because of him,” said GSA CEO Brian Perkins. “It’s been a pleasure working with George over the years and in particular over the past year-and-a-half since I joined the organization.”
“It has been my great honor to work beside Bill Herzig, Peder Jacobson, Jim Heerin, Wally Stevens, Brian Perkins, and many others at GSA. From the beginning, our handful of ‘missionaries’ had no illusions about our ability to effect change. We could only convene leaders, present the facts and leave it in their capable hands. The results have been transformative! We’ve witnessed the development of an industrywide movement, as the entire seafood value chain has proactively joined the sustainability journey. We still have far to go, and immense challenges lie ahead of us. But I’m confident that together we can continue to overcome them,” said Chamberlain.
John Connelly, president of the National Fisheries Institute for the past 20 years, is also a recipient of this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award and will be honored at GOAL 2022.
