Abstract
Aquaculture refers to the farming of any aquatic species for human consumption. The demand for animal protein in general and seafood in particular is expected to grow in the coming decades, due both to a growing global population and a wealthier population. Globally, wild caught fishery production has remained static since the 1980’s and it is widely believed that wild fish stocks may be at (or for many species, have well exceeded) their maximum sustainable catch. The aquaculture industry is rapidly expanding and will be a key part of the solution to meeting this growing demand for seafood and animal protein. However, to achieve the projected intensification and growth of the industry sustainably, it must adequately address several key sustainability challenges. These include increasing production of target species relative to the amount of land, water, feed, and energy used; minimizing eutrophication, greenhouse gas emissions, and farm escapees; improved management of diseases and prevention of outbreaks; and preparing the industry for impacts from climate change. Aquaculture production is vastly heterogeneous: from small-scale family farms to multinational companies. Consequently, the sustainability of aquaculture varies dramatically between species farmed and techniques used. The sectors which perform best across all environmental categories include bivalve mollusks (e.g., clams, mussels, oysters, scallops) and seaweeds. The sectors with the greatest sustainability challenges include higher trophic level species which require large feed inputs (i.e., some species of finfish) or species with heavy land usage demands (i.e., shrimp farms which may rely on mangroves being converted to farms).
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Cantrell, D. (2022). Aquaculture. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Global Sustainability. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38948-2_196-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-38948-2_196-1
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