‘Research into use….renewing our strategy at the Institute ...€¦ · ‘Research into use….renewing our strategy at the Institute of Aquaculture, Stirling’ Dave Little and

‘Research into use….renewing our strategy at the Institute of Aquaculture, Stirling’

Dave Little and Francis Murray Sustainable Aquaculture Group, Institute of Aquaculture

Societal drivers

• Growth in demand globally for farmed seafood but ….. – Resource crunch (feed, water) and

competition for them – Impacts of intensification

• Demand for increasingly improved environmental and social benefits

• Reflected in support-UK Government, Scottish Government; EU Horizon 20-20, Private sector

BBSRC-NERC-new call for aquaculture research

• Mechanisms of disease (including parasite) infection and spread, including host-pathogen and environmental interactions

• Biology of health and disease resistance (including gut health and genetic resistance, effects of intensification)

• Immunology of infection and protection, including vaccinology • Tools, methods and technologies for diagnostics, experimental

resources, and environmental systems • New technologies for monitoring and predicting weather and

climate-related hazards and risks to the expanding aquaculture sector as it moves into environments more exposed to wind and waves

• Determining interactions between wild and farmed fish. • Assessing the long-term environmental capacity for increased

aquaculture production

EU-Horizon 2020 • Seven themes of which three:- • 1) Health, demographic change and well-

being • 2) Food security, sustainable agriculture

and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research, and the bioeconomy

• 3) Climate action, environment, resource efficiency and raw materials

are particularly relevant

•

• Sealice control; interactions with wild salmonids; between farm transmission mechanisms , within Farm management practices; Health and welfare of cleaner fish; Non-chemical treatment of sea lice; Selective Breeding (focusing on resistance to sea lice).

• •Replacing scarce, marine-sourced components of aquaculture feeds with sustainable, alternative ingredients that will not adversely affect stock health and welfare or product quality

• • Food safety and hygiene for the shellfish sector, specifically: Norovirus detection and management; Detection, quantification and management of algal biotoxins in shellfish production

• • Better models for siting increasing production capacity through: that assess assimilative and biological carrying capacity for fish and shellfish farms in inshore and offshore marine ecosystems

Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre (based at Stirling)

• “Innovation centres offer game changing opportunities for collaboration between our academic and business base. The investment and partnership model is unique and their potential for growth is huge”

• Alex Salmond MSP, First

Minister http://scottishaquaculture.com/

Links with fisheries Priorities for BBSRC/NERC, Marine Scotland, SAIC and MASTs are highly aligned Aquaculture as part of a broader marine sector • In Europe fisheries

remain dominant over aquaculture

• Maintaining relevance to both the local and, the much larger, global industry

FAO, 2014

Aquaculture as wild habitat • Aquaculture provides

habitat and food resource for wild fish

• Multiple species impacted: including commercial fisheries

• Monitoring Scottish sea cages using video and wild capture

• Fatty acid profiling to measure impact of feed on wild fish, including indirect trophic impacts

Scotland’s position in global aquaculture

• Important and increasing profile in Scotland’s food and drink economy

• Disproportionately benefits marginalised rural and urban communities

• Finfish sector highly consolidated over its 40 year history but shellfish remains more varied

• Either highly intensive (salmon) or completely extensive (shellfish)

International aquaculture

• Most aquaculture occurs in low and medium income countries (LMIC)

• High proportion of aquaculture is based in freshwater and expanding rapidly to meet seafood demand

• Major constraints to mariculture include higher risks and cost of access, reproductive and technology constraints of the farmed species

Fish consumption by location

http://www.unep.org/dewa/vitalwater/article173.html

Fish consumption in terms of dietary protein http://www.unep.org/dewa/vitalwater/article176.html

So, our international focus is on …. South and Southeast Asia

..from production to consumption

…. and West Africa

Sustainable intensification - a global aquaculture challenge

• Common issue of availability of quality feed ingredient supplies

• Access to markets-urbanisation and exports as drivers…developing importance of certification and standards

• Site selection-physical, environmental and social impacts –production to consumption

Resource efficiency in aquaculture: Fishmeal

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200

400

600

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1000

1200

1400

1600

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2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008

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s to

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Use of Fishmeal in Global Salmon and Vietnamese Pangasius Production

Salmon Production

Pangasius Production

Salmon FM

Pangasius FM

• Global salmon production consumes nearly 4 times as much fishmeal as Pangasius in Vietnam

• Innovation in aquafeed technology is improving the efficiency of fishmeal and oil use for many species

Tacon and Metian 2008; FAO Fishstat 2010

Replacement of marine fish oil with high-EPA oil from transgenic Camelina sativa in feeds for

Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

1 2 3

Betancor et al

Vegetable oils

Alternatives to fish oil

Single-cell microalgae

Low price Nutritional quality

High n-3 LC-PUFA High production costs High production No LC-PUFA

Unpredictable supply Nutritional quality

GM-Oilseed crop

Betancor et al

Sealice control through integrated pest management

• “Cleaner fish”, Development of best

management strategies for the commercial deployment of cleaner fish in salmon farms.

• Vaccine development: an environmentally friendly tool for increasing sustainability of protein production in UK salmon aquaculture. Collaborators:

• Sainsburys, Pfizer limited, Moredun Research

Institute. TSB, Technology Strategy Board

Salmon farming in Scotland worth £585M (10% of world production)

Sea lice infestation cost the Scottish industry: £30 million/year

Reduced efficacy of licensed treatments is leading to a renaissance in alternative therapy development

The Sea lice challenge

Biological control of sealice using cleaner fish is the only “alternative treatment” currently available.

UK demand is for approx. 2 million cleaner fish per

annum

Aquaculture by-product utilisation research objectives

• Identify most economically attractive utilisation strategies

• Assess environmental performance of current and prospective technologies using Life Cycle Assessment

• Encourage synergies between industries

• Bring interesting innovative technologies to commercialisation

Aquaculture by-product availability

• The pangasius industry and supporting services have grown rapidly in the Mekong Delta

• European secondary processing is geographically diffuse • By-product estimates are ~700,000 tonnes for pangasius vs.

250,000 tonnes for salmon post filleting.

Source: Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation 20102 and Norwegian Ministry of Fisheries and coastal Affairs, 2009

Source: Vietnam Association of Seafood Producers and Exporters 2010

Pangasius Atlantic salmon

Newton, 2012

Insect protein for fish feeds…in Ghana and….. Loch Carron

http://www.proteinsect.eu/

Shellfish research needs

• Broodstock Management & Stock improvement

• Shellfish and food safety

[email protected]

Shellfish & Food Safety

Chemical contaminants and biohazards most relevant to the production of safe shellfish include:

• Pollution by chemical contaminants and biohazards in coastal areas impacts human health and economic activities

• .

Marine Bio-Toxins Pathogens Persistent Organic Pollutants

• More than 90% of enterprises are SMEs, particularly vulnerable to closure

Certification • Certification and ‘level playing fields’ • Roles of certification in improving

sustainability • Differentiation of qualities-Scotland’s’

environmental governance and Area based managed agreements models for zonation elsewhere?

Zonal approaches • Applicable to

Vietnamese and Indonesian shrimp farms?

• Cumulative environmental and shrimp disease impacts

• Challenges of cooperative action with numerous smallholders

Scottish salmon and welfare

• The specifics of the UK/EU markets and value of high welfare salmon

• Raising awareness of ‘potential ‘win-win’ scenarios to Asian stakeholders with low levels of interest/knowledge

The Hidden Costs of Eyestalk Ablation in Commercial Shrimp

Production

Stirling, Scotland

El Tigre, Honduras

More holistic, more locally informed? Ethical Aquatic Food Index (EAFI)

What is the EAFI?

• Tool for seafood selectors to compare various

Asian aquaculture products from 4 different countries.

• Encompasses all aspects of the industry under four broad themes: economic, welfare,

environmental and governance • Uses high-resolution, farm-level data collected

from a sample of farms from each country

Ethical Aquatic Food Index (EAFI)

Economic

Welfare

Environment

Governance

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Bangladeshi shrimp by theme

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1

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Ethical Aquatic Food Index (EAFI)

Economic Large

Economic Medium

Economic Small

Welfare Large

Welfare Medium

Welfare Small

Environment Large

Environment Medium

Environment Small

Governance Large

Governance Medium

Governance Small

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Bangladeshi shrimp by farm scale

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Produce high-quality products for consumers

Contribute to sustainable regional economic growth

Provide adequate labour conditions

Minimise adverse impacts on the wider community

Practice transparent and fair business

Farm animals to high health and welfare standards

Maintain regional and global environmental quality

Demonstrate sustainable and ethical aquaculture industry governance

Exhibit effective government regulation and land-use planning

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%

Bangladeshi shrimp by principle

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Aquaculture creating livelihood opportunities

Sustainable and pro-poor livelihood opportunities created in Sierra Leone through adoption of community-managed, mangrove-based oyster culture systems with value-added marketing attributes Murray et al, 2014

Local food security through export-based aquaculture?

• Shrimp in Asia produced in highly heterogeneous systems compared to consolidated developed country aquaculture

• More extensive systems in Bangladesh tend to support poorer people managing complex polycultures

• Subject to simplistic (and damaging) critiques on environmental and social grounds

L’Etang et al, forthcoming

Bangladesh Extensive & semi-

intensive shrimp, fish ponds

Semi-intensive prawn, fish, rice, dyke crops

Source: L. Falconer - Unpublished

Shrimp, prawns, fish, rice crops

Dry season Rainy season

Prawns Shrimp

Site suitability assessment Water Urban Protected

Highly unsuitable Highly suitable

Sui

tabi

lity

C

onst

rain

ts

Suitability based on existing farms

Mahalanobis typicality

Maxent

Local food chains and employment

• Income from ‘shrimp’ in extensive ponds southeast Bangladesh is less than half of total pond income

• Employment gains for the poorest groups

International aquaculture Scottish knowledge and opportunities?

Partner with us: www.aqua.stir.ac.uk/sarg [email protected]