Second-year School of Marine and Environmental Affairs (SMEA) graduate students Amie Kusch and Clare Knife were recently invited to attend the FAO Expert Workshop: Turning Guidance into Action: Regional Insights for Implementing the Guidelines for Sustainable Aquaculture at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) headquarters in Rome, Italy.

The invitation came from their FAO client, Amber Himes-Cornell, whose collaboration with the students is part of their SMEA capstone project. Over the past year, Amie and Clare have been conducting research related to sustainable aquaculture guidance. Their work contributed to a presentation delivered at the workshop and was used during breakout group discussions with FAO staff and representatives from member countries.

In addition to helping develop the presentation materials, Amie and Clare actively participated in workshop discussions and supported FAO during member-country breakout groups focused on implementing the Guidelines for Sustainable Aquaculture.

These discussions provided an opportunity to incorporate perspectives from FAO member countries into their ongoing research. The conversations also highlighted additional challenges and examples of successful guideline implementation that will help inform their capstone work and final research documents.

Experiences like this demonstrate the real-world impact of SMEA capstone collaborations and the important role students can play in advancing global conversations around sustainable aquaculture and ocean policy.