Moving aquaculture into more sustainable waters

In view of a growing demand for proteins, freshwater and marine aquacultures will play an increasingly important role. In order to unfold their potential to enhance global food security and nutrition, we must find ways to increase production output while at the same time lower negative environmental impacts.

On 15 and 16 January 2020, the workshop The Blue Sector at the Crossroad – Moving Aquaculture Into More Sustainable Waters looked at strategies for a more intensive but sustainable use of fish, mussels, crustaceans or algae in aquacultures. Focus of the discussions were the potentials and challenges of different aquacultures. The three focus groups

• Land-based recirculation aquaculture systems (RAS), aquaponics, pond and flow through systems 
• Integrated multitropic aquaculture (IMTA), paving the way towards community and ecosystem based aquaculture in the tropics
• Linking aquaculture with the SDGs

developed specific research questions and new research approaches. The workshop was organised by the Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT) and IGB to promote interdisciplinary exchange for the generation of innovative research approaches.