Acknowledgements

The preparation of this document has been possible thanks to several experts and institutions that have generously provided their support under different forms.

The lead author wishes to thank the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization for having involved him in several projects on the sustainable development of aquaculture and for having provided guidance and technical advice during all the phases of the preparation of this document.
The Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is duly acknowledged for having financed this publication.
The following experts are acknowledged for their valuable contributions: Mr Fabrizio Piccolotti (Cage aquaculture expert), for his inputs in the cage installation, maintenance and harvesting sections of the manual; Mr Alessandro Ciattaglia (Badinotti Group SpA), for his overall revision and expansion of the sections on cage nets, equipment and cage construction and for making available a large number of pictures; Mr Neil Anthony Sims and Mr Michael Bullock (Kampachi Farms), for reviewing and improving the overall publication quality with numerous technical inputs; Mr Stendert Zuurbier (Ad.Aq.

Srl) and Mr Fabrizio di Pol (Technosea Srl), for their good suggestions and for making available photographic material; Mr Roberto Co (Aqua Srl), for allowing photographs to be taken in his fish cage farm and used in this publication; Mr Trond Severinsen (AKVA Group ASA), for reviewing and providing further inputs for the finalization of this work; Mr Alessandro Galioto and Mr Stefano Bronchini for allowing photographs to be taken during the fish sampling operations and used in this publication; and Mr Nikos Keferakis for additional photograph material. Thanks are also due to Mr Austin Stankus for proofreading the manuscript. Mr Federico Gemma is acknowledged for the technical drawings included in this publication. Layout design was prepared by Mr Jose Luis Castilla Civit.
This work has been possible also thanks to the input of workers and divers who shared their knowledge and experience with the lead author during several years of work in the field. They have made a great contribution with their inventiveness and creativity to the improvement of techniques and procedures for the cage operations.