At the opening session of its Aquaculture Europe 2014 event in Donostia-San Sebastián in Spain on October 14th, the European Aquaculture Society (EAS ) gave its Honorary Life Membership Award to Michael New and its Distinguished Service Award to Yves Harache, for their long-term contributions to the development of aquaculture and the activities of the Society. AE2014 was attended by almost 1500 participants from 71 countries, making it the biggest Aquaculture Europe event to date.