GAA Survey Expects Global Shrimp Production to Rise 4% or more in 2017  The Global Aquaculture Alliance's 19th annual GOAL Conference opened in Guangzhou, China this week. Nearly 400 registered, according to GAA staff, who saw a surge of registrations in the last few weeks. The largest number of attendees are from North America, with the conference about equally split among buyers, producers, and processors. Jim Anderson presented the results of GAA’s annual survey of shrimp producers to forecast Global production. The result was much lower than last year. For 2014-2018, Anderson's survey is now predicting 4.2% annual growth, but even this may be optimistic write John Sackton who is attending the Conference. For the major producers, the survey expects growth in Thailand, slower growth in India, and rapid growth in Ecuador and stability in Indonesia. In some other GOAL coverage, Sackton reports on the latest developments in shrimp disease research based on a presentation from Robins McIntosh, Senior Vice President of CP Foods. The biggest takeaway, says Robins, is that in the real world all of the major shrimp diseases interact and affect each other, so EMS, Whitespot, EHP all impact each other and cannot be addressed in isolation. Robins said clean ponds and hatcheries are a key part in managing all diseases, which are part of the environment and are not going to disappear completely. Meanwhile, Susan Chambers reports on the Hawaiian seafood industry's task force that was formed the same day the Associated Press reported labor abuse on board US-flagged and owned commercial fishing vessels. The task force hired a consultant who is a recognized expert in evaluating labor practices in supply chains to provide guidance to the group and bring understanding and experience of standards and alternative approaches to social auditing of labor practices. “The industry takes the AP report seriously,” Hawaii fishing industry member and advocate Jim Cook said in a press release, and “is actively assessing the situation and is committed to making certain that if found, forced labor and labor abuse is eliminated from the fishing industry.” With seven weeks left in the season, halibut landings in Alaska have reached nearly 15 milion pounds, or about 87 percent of the quota to date. We run a post from Kodiak Port Sampler Dave Jackson from the International Pacific Halibut Commission that says the 2016 halibut season has been good for the fleet. Finally, we run a letter from Larry Collins, president of the San Francisco Cab Boat Owners’ Association and vice president of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations who comments on another proposed Marine Protection Area that circumvents existing fishery management protocols under Magnuson. This time its the proposed establishment of the California Seamounts and Ridges National Marine Conservation Area Designation to protect seamounts, ridges and banks in federal waters off the state's coastline. "It’s an end-run around the normal fisheries management process, which has been successfully carried out by the Pacific Fishery Management Council for 40 years," Collins writes.