In this briefing paper by IIED, Essam Yassin Mohammed argues that sustainable fisheries must be central to the new global development goals (SDGs) of 2015. This could either be realised by providing goals and targets for the fisheries themselves in the agenda — or by making them part of a broader set of goals that focus on food security and livelihoods.

SEAT, the Sustaining Ethical Aquaculture Trade project have highlighted some key ‘myths’ around aquaculture on their website and sought to provide some clarity on the reality of the situation.

A new book entitled “Principles of Sustainable Aquaculture: Promoting Social, Economic and Environmental Resilience” by Stuart W. Bunting of the Centre for Environment and Society at the University of Essex serves as an advanced level textbook focusing on developing more sustainable aquaculture practices. 

The UK’s New Economics Foundation has written a report arguing that all fishing in Europe should cease for up to nine years to let stocks recover. 

This paper fish demand in 2050 will be met but only if fish resources are managed sustainably and the animal feeds industry reduces its reliance on wild fish.

The Scottish Aquaculture Research Forum has published a study on Scottish produced suspended mussels and intertidal oysters. The study considered the cradle-to-gate impacts of the shellfish, from spat collection in the case of mussels, and hatching in the case of oysters, through  growing, harvesting, depuration, and packing ready for dispatch.  To illustrate the carbon impacts of the full life cycle, a scenario is included that,  based on various assumptions, illustrates the potential impacts of distribution, retail, consumption and disposal of the shells. 

John Forster, an FCRN mailing list member, has written two very interesting articles on aquaculture for the UK Research Councils’ Food Security website www.foodsecurity.ac.uk