Sustainable Aquatic Production
Balancing environment, human, and societal well-being, by co-producing equitable evidence-based solutions that support sustainable fisheries and aquaculture.
People around the world rely on their aquatic environments for food, resources, nutrition, income, and recreation, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. With a growing population and demand for aquatic products, there is increasing pressure on the aquatic environment to provide services often to the detriment of our natural capital resources that are also being impacted by climate change. For example, production from wild capture fisheries is static with the proportion of stocks exploited sustainably decreasing, and aquaculture is satisfying the increased demand but often at a cost to the environment. In addition, supply chains are complex and global, reducing resilience to shocks and affecting food security. A ‘Blue Transformation’ is underway that aims to ensure sustainable aquaculture, effective fisheries management, and upgrade supply chains.
The Sustainable Aquatic Production theme aims to deliver science to support the Blue Transformation covering food and non-food generated from aquatic systems. This will involve providing holistic systems-based equitable science that utilises innovative technologies, artificial intelligence, and data to increase sustainability of production in a climate safe manner and maximise the benefits for society. This will build on our existing strengths in stock assessment, mixed fisheries, recreational fisheries, diadromous species, and aquaculture solutions, alongside integrating fisheries and aquaculture. We will not have all the skills needed, so will require developing a wide range of partnerships to co-design local and global solutions, cementing our position as an honest broker. A diversity of voices will be needed to innovate, so we will aim for inclusive approaches that value different expertise including traditional knowledge. This will support Cefas in delivering the grand challenges related to aquatic food security, healthy people and society and an improved marine environment, alongside contributing to Defra missions on food security, nature recovery, and circular economy, and underpinning the FAO goals for the ‘Blue Transformation’.
To achieve this, we:
Develop new science to underpin our advice on sustainable fisheries and aquaculture, remaining at the forefront of our core disciplines like stock assessment, mixed fisheries, diadromous fish, recreational fisheries, and aquaculture systems.
Utilise innovative technology, artificial intelligence, and Seascope to create new, efficient, and holistic equitable science that balances biological, economic, and social impacts.
Expand our understanding of aquatic production systems, their resilience to shocks, and role in food, nutrition, and income security.
Provide assessments of the communities and sectors that rely on sustainable aquatic production for cohesion, well-being, and livelihoods.
Build strong partnerships that support the co-production of transdisciplinary solutions that are inclusive and incorporate traditional sources of knowledge.
Enhance scientific credibility through the publication of both deep technical studies and cross-cutting position papers.
