Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture

Our goal is to improve the sustainability of fisheries and aquaculture systems. Our science is helping to achieve this goal in several ways.

Firstly, we are improving the ways in which fisheries and aquaculture systems are monitored, for example, by developing innovative systems for detecting illegal fishing activity. Secondly, we are developing methods to better forecast future environmental conditions and the ways in which fisheries and aquaculture systems will respond, providing information to support management and policy. For example, we have developed ways to more accurately forecast harmful algal blooms that affect aquaculture farms and provided operational tools that enable managers to respond before these events occur.

We will reduce adverse activities or environmental risks and improve the sustainability of key marine industries, both at a national and international level, by providing operational tools that improve management and inform policy changes.

We can increase the sustainability, adaptability and equitability of fishing and aquaculture activities as well as the health and wellbeing of coastal communities by changing behaviours associated with the management of local fish stocks and the buying habits of consumers.

Our activities are described in these pages on:

• Food security and monitoring and forecasting of harmful algal blooms
• Optimising aquaculture and detecting aquaculture structures;
• Socio-economics of fisheries and aquaculture;

For example:

• Informing krill fishery management;
• Revealing illegal fishing activity;
• Monitoring and forecasting harmful algal blooms;
• Reducing the frequency of outbreaks of pathogens affecting aquaculture farms;
• Informing the development of marine protected areas based on climate-aware modelling of fisheries and vulnerable species.