SEMINAR: Sustainable Aquaculture

Worldwide fisheries production, from capture fisheries, has leveled off at a little less than 100 million tonnes annually, whilst aquaculture production still continues to expand rapidly. In Australia, the annual rate of growth in aquaculture production has increased at more than 10% per year since the early 1990s. As a result, aquaculture’s share of Australia’s total fisheries gross value of production has increased from less than 15% in the early 1990s to more than 30% today. Whilst the advantage of this, in terms of its contribution to the world’s food production, is significant, this must be seen against its environmental impacts. Some of the environmental impacts of various types of aquaculture production will be discussed and recent innovations in production technologies, designed to deal with these problems, will be reviewed, together with moves towards the establishment of internationally acceptable aquaculture standards.