- 29 November 2017
Food from the oceans
The only way to obtain significantly more food and biomass sustainably from the ocean is to harvest seafood that on average is from a lower trophic level than we currently harvest.
The Evidence Review Report warns that in our extraction of food from the oceans, ‘business as usual’ is not sustainable from social, economic and environmental viewpoints.
The oceans are home to a large number of resources that are either not exploited or are marginally exploited currently and which could improve food security and the wellbeing of humanity. Increased food production from the ocean could release some of the pressure that has been put on agriculture, as well as supporting a range of livelihoods and activities associated with the fishing and mariculture industries.
Key options for how to obtain more food and biomass from the ocean:
- Tackling waste and discards. It is quite common that around one-quarter of the catch constitutes unwanted species or undersized fish, termed 'bycatch'. Part of the bycatch is landed and used, but the unused fraction is thrown back into the ocean (often dead or dying) as discards. This practice is a wasted opportunity for biomass and food production as the potential for utilisation of discard and other waste is significant.
- Harvesting wild animal species at lower trophic levels, which today are either not exploited at all, or only marginally. Plankton, zooplankton and wild macroalgae could be used as as a food source for mankind.
- Developing aquaculture, and especially supporting the mariculture of macroalgae, marine herbivores, such as bivalves and marine carnivores and introducing multi-trophic aquaculture which integrates the production of species from different tropic levels.
- Providing trustworthy consumer information on industrial fishing and mariculture.
- Cultivating new approaches to social responsibility, which focus on open innovation, co-production of knowledge and social responsibility on multiple levels.
- Introducing financial strategies that promote sustainable fishing.
Working group members
Professor
University of Bergen
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Professor
Trinity College Dublin
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Professor
University of Amsterdam
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Professor
Utrecht University
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Professor
Polytechnic University of Marche and Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn
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Professor
University of Greenwich
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Senior Lecturer
National University of Ireland Galway
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University of Oxford
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Professor
University of Bergen
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Ecoaqua Institute, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
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Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research
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French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea
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Senior Regional Manager
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research
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Professor
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
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Professor
Kiel University
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Professor
University of Bristol
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Professor
Ghent University
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Professor
Technical University of Denmark
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Policy impact
- European Commission: recommendations contained in the proposal for the 2021-2027 European Marine and Fisheries Fund
- European Commission: cited in Maritime Spatial Planning for Blue Growth
- European Parliament: cited in Towards a sustainable and competitive European aquaculture sector
- European Council: discussed by the Working Party on Internal & External Fisheries Policy, with strong endorsements from the French, Dutch and Spanish delegations
- European Marine Board: influenced the position paper Navigating the Future V: Marine Science for a Sustainable Future
- High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy (a global intergovernmental panel) cited in The Ocean as a Solution to Climate Change and The Future of Food from the Sea