Sustainable aquaculture is the commercial production of fish species using practices that are profitable, promote the growth of the local community, and have a minimal negative impact on the environment. With mounting evidence that wild fisheries are being overexploited and an alarming number of fish species are going extinct, the idea of sustainable aquaculture has developed and spread. A thorough definition and set of practitioner’s recommendations for sustainable aquaculture have been developed as a result of the detrimental environmental effects of conventional aquaculture, which have also inspired many who care about the oceans, fisheries, and food production.
Strategies for sustainable aquaculture growth:
Expansion of sustainable aquaculture necessitates additional technological innovations, policy support, and incentives throughout the value chain. Access to water, optimization of carrying capacity, identification and allocation of aquaculture zones, streamlining of licensing procedures in conjunction with good environmental practices and monitoring, availability of trained and skilled labor, production of quality seed and feeds, regulation of the use of chemicals and antibiotics, and stringent biosecurity protocols are examples of these.
Aquaculture can be developed in a variety of ways that are sustainable, such as ecological aquaculture, organic aquaculture, composite fish culture, integrated aquaculture, and closed recirculation systems.
Genetic improvement in breeding programs:
The genetic improvement of farmed species is a powerful tool for increasing aquaculture production efficiency. It contributes to a lower environmental footprint by lowering feed, land, and water requirements per unit of production. Aquaculture species from various taxa share two key characteristics: high intraspecific genetic diversity and high fecundity. These characteristics enable high selection intensities to be used, resulting in significant genetic gains for commercially important traits.
Biosecurity and disease control:
Aquaculture intensification and globalization of aquatic product trade have resulted in the emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases, posing a significant economic and environmental challenge to society. The Progressive Management Pathway for Improving Aquaculture Biosecurity (PMP/AB) is a groundbreaking initiative launched in 2018 by FAO and partners. It was created as an extension of the progressive control pathway (PCP) approach, which has been widely adopted around the world to help countries develop systematic frameworks for planning and monitoring risk reduction strategies for the reduction, elimination, and eradication of major livestock and zoonotic diseases. This step-by-step approach allows for the definition and achievement of realistic disease control objectives.
Digitalization in aquaculture:
Digital applications are increasingly being deployed in aquaculture particularly to improve business planning and siting, farm stock management, environmental monitoring. It can also improve risk prevention, biosecurity, and intelligent automation of routine farm activities.
Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture:
Nutrients from uneaten feed and excreted waste of fed species become food for extractive species in integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) systems, reducing nutrient release into the environment while increasing overall productivity. There is growing interest in IMTA as part of Blue Transformation programs; however, combining multiple species into an integrated system (e.g., seaweed farming and bivalve mollusk culture combined with finfish cage farming) requires significant architecture of facilities and equipment, as well as additional management to produce and market the multiple crops. IMTA, as a bioremediation system at sea, offers a potential solution to the problems caused by organic and inorganic wastes released into the environment by marine fed aquaculture.
To achieve future demand and reduce reliance on imports, aquaculture must grow faster than its current rate. Government assistance and private investment are urgently required for long-term growth.
Farhana Islam
Agriculturist, Researcher
