Rationale

According to FAO, food supply will have to increase 60% by 2050 to meet the demands of a projected population of 9 billion. In parallel with this market pull, environmental pollutants from anthropogenic sources are introduced, dispersed and accumulated in seafood through trophic transfer, posing a risk to human health. New management strategies and regimes for food production systems are needed to respond to pressures on food webs resulting from climate change, physical degradation, competing uses, and fisheries induced evolution.

Responding to these complex challenges calls for a framework where scientists from different disciplines work together. In particular, there is a need to integrate fisheries and aquaculture research with omics, environmental, social, and economic research.

Activities

• Technological developments in aquaculture production including research on innovative feeds, and research based on DNA sequencing brood stock, new species and stock baselines adapted to climate change impacts.
• Foster engagement between marine fisheries, aquaculture and land-based food production to maximise sustainable food production and sound governance.
• Develop a better understanding of multiple pressures on food webs and how they impact on fisheries and aquaculture such as the effects of eutrophication and harmful algal blooms (HAB).
• Development of new models and address data needs to ensure sustainable fisheries and a GES of populations of commercial fish species (descriptor 3 of MSFD).

Timescale