Fisheries and Aquaculture

‘Since 1961 the annual global growth in fish consumption has been twice as high as population growth, demonstrating that the fisheries and aquaculture sector is crucial in meeting FAO’s goal of a world without hunger and malnutrition’ José Graziano da Silva, FAO Director-General (http://www.fao.org/state-of-fisheries-aquaculture).
The EU's fishing industry is the fourth largest in the world, providing some 6.4 million tonnes of fish each year and employment to more than 350,000 people. Marine resources must, therefore, be used in a responsible way if we want to maintain the fragile balance of marine ecosystems and in turn protect and develop sea-related human activities.

In response to a request by DG Mare, the ‘Science Advice for Policy by European Academies’ committee published the SAPEA Evidence Review Report ‘Food from the Oceans’ in November 2017 in which they called for responsible mariculture and wild capture fisheries for harvesting food from the ocean as part of a broader food policy framework at EU and global levels. This requires an integrated approach to innovation in operational, planning and policy frameworks for fisheries and mariculture and will require continued investment in human capital through education in programs such as IMBRSea (https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/research-topic/fisheries-and-aquaculture).

Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management

Health Management in Aquatic Animals

Remote sensing in Aquaculture and Fisheries

Food Production

This specialisation aims to train marine scientists to be able to understand where fisheries and aquaculture are placed within the continuously changing landscape of seafood production. Graduates will be able to support the sustainable development of these sectors in the decades to come.

Learning Outcomes:

The graduated student understands the biological principles of culturing marine organisms for food or products;
The graduated student understands vectors of disease/parasites and principles of managing marine animal health in culture;
The graduated student understands challenges and societal conflicts arising from increased production of food and products from the marine environment.
The graduated student understands the life history characteristics and ecological principles governing variability in marine resource availability and its sustainable use
The graduated student understands and is able to apply quantitative methods of population assessment, including survey methods, data collection, analysis, and assessment models;