Expanding mariculture?
UK-headquartered ABPmer, supported by the Institute of Aquaculture, at the University of Stirling, has been appointed to carry out a ground-breaking study to evaluate whether mariculture expansion provides a means of decreasing the impact of terrestrial food and energy production.
The global challenges associated with ensuring food and energy security are increasingly recognised. Furthermore, these challenges need to be addressed in a sustainable manner taking account of the need to maintain and restore biodiversity and to respect environmental limits.
The study is being funded by WWF-UK and the Scottish Aquaculture Research Forum (SARF). The ‘exploratory’ research will seek to understand what proportion of future global food and energy needs could feasibly be met by mariculture and whether the expansion of mariculture might contribute to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as well as reduce the environmental ‘footprint’ of such production compared to land-based agriculture and energy production.
The research team will review and compare the ‘footprint’ of food and energy production from agricultural and mariculture systems based on existing literature.
More details about the project can be found on the SARF website www.sarf.org.uk
By Jake Frith
Related Articles
MARINE CONSTRUCTION
POWER & PROPULSION
ENVIRONMENT