Dear colleagues and friends,

We are excited to announce that the 5^th International Congress on Applied Ichthyology, Oceanography, and Aquatic Environment (HydroMediT 2024) will take place in Mytilene, at the hospitable island of Lesvos, from the 30^th of May to the 2^nd of June 2024, in the premises of the University of the Aegean, with a series of National and International stakeholders as Co-Organizers, Supporters and Sponsors.

During the five years of absence of an in-person congress, we have managed to organise in 2021 a very successful online event. Nevertheless, we consider that the personal contact cannot be substituted and we decided to organise our forthcoming congress as an event with physical presence, allowing for a limited number of young researchers and students to present their work remotely.

Our initial ambition, when we joined our forces before 10 years by merging our previous congresses, was to establish a forum that will promote sound technological solutions – based on the edge of the scientific knowledge – to smooth the existing problems for aquaculture and fisheries, and to promote the efforts for the protection and the preservation of the fragile Mediterranean environment.

Today HydroMediT has been established as one of the major International Congresses on novel scientific and technological trends and aspects on Applied Ichthyology, Oceanography, and Aquatic Environment in our region, covering the Mediterranean and its adjacent Seas, with an increasing representation of the academic community, and we want to thank you all for your continuous support.

Being the Chairman of this Congress it is my honour and pleasure to welcome you to HydroMediT 2024 on behalf of the four organisers:

• Department of Ichthyology and Aquatic Environment (DIAE), University of Thessaly
• Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture (DFA), University of Patras
• Department of Marine Sciences (DMS), University of the Aegean
• Panhellenic Society of Technologists Ichthyologists (PASTI)

The main theme of HydroMediT 2024 is “Integrating Research and Scientific Collaboration to Foster Sustainability of the Blue Economy”, on our effort to highlight the need for Policy Makers, Industry players, and Scientists to work together and deal with the different challenges of Blue Economy.

During the four days of our congress a broad range of topics will be covered in its scientific sessions, in the form of oral presentations and e-poster sessions, having also a keynote speech and invited lectures on different topics from renowned researchers across Europe which will be announced soon.

We have faith that our HydroMediT 2024 congress will bring together in its parallel sessions different experiences from our region and its adjacent seas, while offering many networking opportunities, and we strongly encourage the authors to present their work in it.

We welcome your participation and encourage you to register as soon as possible via the main Congress website. Alternatively, you may wish to support our effort as an Exhibitor or Sponsor and we invite you to view our sponsorship prospectus.

For the Organising Committee of the Congress