The Rectorate and Conference center of the University of Zaragoza hosted Spain’s 14th Aquaculture National Congress, from 3 to 5 October 2017. Around 300 aquaculture experts came together under the heading “Our aquaculture, a safe bet” to discuss feeding and nutrition, breeding and genetics, pathology, health and welfare, aquariology, food quality and consumption, environment and spatial planning, production and technology or business innovations.Continue reading
“Together with energy sourcing, the greatest challenge faced by Humanity in the forthcoming decades will be that of feeding the 9600 billion inhabitants of the planet Earth by 2050.
In order to rise to this challenge, aquaculture is one of the most viable alternatives to provide Humanity with the necessary protein. It currently plays a vital role worldwide in the fight to eradicate hunger and malnutrition, providing protein-rich food, essential oils, vitamins and minerals for a wide sector of the population. Looking to the future, FAO estimates that by 2030 over 65% of seafood will come from aquaculture”.Continue reading
The Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment has published the “Annual Indicators Report: Agriculture, Fisheries, Food and Environment 2016”.
Marine and mainland aquaculture are regarded as strategic and the data presented in the survey (from 2015) indicate that the total value of aquaculture production (marine and continental) was 597 million euros, slightly lower (1%) than in the previous year, but steady and higher (6%) than the average of the period 2012-2014.Continue reading
From the 30th to the 31st of May, the European Union Reference Laboratory (EURL) for fish diseases, in Denmark, will host the 21st Annual Workshop.
Around 60 participants from more than 35 countries will attend the workshop, amongst them partners from the MedAID consortium, such as Niccolò Vendramin and Niels Jørgen Olesen from DTU-Denmark, Anna Toffan from IZSVe- Italy, Snjezana Zrncic from HVI-Croatia and Nadia Chérif from INSTM-Tunisia.
The workshop programme can be downloaded here and more information about the workshop and the daily work of the EURL for fish diseases can be found here: www.eurl-fish.eu.
Europe presently consumes twice as much seafood as it produces, with imports filling the gap. Despite this fact, aquaculture accounts for about 20% of production in Europe and directly employs some 85 000 people, mostly in rural and coastal areas. In contrast with the development seen in other non EU Mediterranean countries, aquaculture production is stagnating in Europe. This is the reason why the European Commission has proposed the target of a 20% increase in sustainable aquaculture production in the Mediterranean. With the aim of supporting this objective the MedAID project has been born, and its outcomes are expected to be vital in strengthing European marine fish production.Continue reading
The sea begins to manifest a high disagreement with human intervention. The evidence of what the climate change is doing to the sea does not stop surprising us. There is more and more biological uniformity and it is becoming necessary to safeguard a minimum of biodiversity.
It is possible that we should dispense, in the short term, from the way in which we seek food from the sea. The hypocrisy of sustainable and adequate use of resources must be ended. We’re not doing it and it’s going to be harder and harder to do it. The time has come to leave the sea calm.Continue reading