The key theme to emerge from the Offshore Mariculture Conference 2014 was that aquaculture is still the future.
As conference chairman, Alessandro Lovatelli, aquaculture officer at the FAO, stated, “the maximum sustainable potential from wild capture fisheries has been reached, but aquaculture is growing”.
The 5th Offshore Mariculture Conference, held from the 9-11 April, attracted over 100 delegates from 18 different countries to Caserta, Naples.
Alessandro set the scene for this year’s conference, and said that to keep up with food consumption and the growing population, we need more fish for protein. It is predicted that the world population will grow to over 9 billion by 2050. Fish farms are expected to produce nearly two-thirds of global food fish supply by 2030, and the rise in seafood demand gives countries the opportunity to expand and improve responsible fish and shellfish farming practices, with increased focus on offshore mariculture.
Currently Asia is the only continent producing more fish than capture fisheries (54%), and, geographically, tilapia is the most widespread species for aquaculture production in the world.
The two day technical conference was opened by Pier Antonio Salvador, president of the Associazione Piscicoltori Italiani (API), who welcomed delegates to Naples and set the scene for the three keynote papers presented by José Aguilar-Manjarrez, Aquaculture Officer, FIRA and FAO, Paul Holthus founding President/CEO, World Ocean Council and Kathrine Hawes, principal at Aquarius Lawyers…
Read the full article at WorldFishing.net.
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