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Research
Jul 21 - 2025
English Europe

Investigating the Impacts of Fish Farming on Posidonia oceanica Seagrass Meadow Health in Poros, Greece

University of Oxford

‬Widespread loss of the Mediterranean’s dominant seagrass species,‬‭ Posidonia oceanica‬‭, have‬‭ been documented over the past two decades and are expected to increase under imminent‬‭ aquaculture expansion plans. This study aims to investigate historic and current impacts of fish‬‭ farming on‬‭ P. oceanica‬‭ meadows around the island of‬‭ Poros, Greece, aiming to quantify the‬‭ magnitude, spatial extent, and persistence of potential health declines, to establish baseline‬‭ conditions for future monitoring and to anticipate future impacts. By Emily Jones. Supervised by Dr. Gwilym Rowlands, Dr. Nancy Burrell & Dr. Katrina Davis.

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Research
Jul 18 - 2025
EN Global

Explore Environmental Impacts: Seagrass

Poseidon Project

Termed the "lungs of the sea," seagrasses are vital to maintaining healthy underwater ecosystems. Se...
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Research
Jul 03 - 2025
EN Global

List of Certification Programs

Poseidon Project

Certification seals are a marketing tool employed to assure consumers that a packaged seafood produc...
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Certification schemes
Research
Jun 02 - 2025
EN Global

Labor Issues (MEP)

MacAlister Elliott & Partners LTD

Fish farms have a responsibility to ensure that their operations contribute positively to the well-b...
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Research
Jun 02 - 2025
EN Global

Social Impacts of Fish Farming

University of Piraeus

  This is an excerpt from a report by the University of Piraeus entitled, ECONOMIC IMPACTS OF G...
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Hunger / Nutrition / Labor / Small-scale fishers
Research
May 26 - 2025
EN Europe

Large-scale analysis of environmental and ecological impacts of marine finfish aquaculture in the Aegean and Ionian Sea (Eastern Mediterranean)

Science of The Total Environment

Marine finfish aquaculture is a rapidly expanding industry and contributes significantly to global seafood production. However, this rapid growth raises concerns about its environmental impacts. In Greece, legislation on environmental monitoring of fish farms was implemented in 2019. These monitoring activities have resulted in a large-scale dataset on geochemical, sedimentological and macrofaunal parameters obtained from 106 fish farms in Greece. We use this dataset to detect overarching patterns regarding the spatial extent of the impact of fish farms on geochemical and ecological sediment parameters and to evaluate the modulating role of various environmental factors on the impact. Data were collected from 2019 to 2023 at 343 stations and analysed for geochemical and sedimentological (organic carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, heavy metals, granulometry) and ecological (macrobenthic communities, ecological quality) parameters. Results show that organic and nutrient enrichment in sediments were detectable at least up to 130 m from the cage edges, while impacts on benthic macrofaunal indices were mostly limited to tens of meters. Sediment characteristics and geographic location were the main drivers for pollutant accumulation and benthic community responses, but the findings also underline the complexity of ecosystem responses and the importance of local conditions. We evaluate these findings with respect to monitoring practices and provide recommendations to improve environmental management and inform sustainable aquaculture practices.
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Organic waste (e.g. feed or feces)
Research
May 22 - 2025
EN Africa

Revealed: UK Supermarket Seabass Linked to Devastating Overfishing in Senegal

DeSmog

Waitrose, Co-op, Lidl, Asda and Aldi among retailers selling fish fed on west African catch. This piece from DeSmog, co-published with The Guardian, comes after a two-year investigation spanning three countries, exposing the connection between these factories and food insecurity and unemployment in west Africa.
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Hunger / Nutrition / Fish in / Fish Out (FIFO) / Fish Meal / Fish Oil Processing / Sea Bass / Sea Bream / Certification schemes
Research
May 19 - 2025
EN Global

Best practices in responsible planning and sustainable management of aquaculture development

MacAlister Elliott & Partners

Best practices in responsible planning and sustainable management of aquaculture development

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Research
May 14 - 2025
EN Europe, Asia

National Aquaculture Legislation Overview - Turkey

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

The National Aquaculture Legislation Overview (NALO) consist of a series of comparative national overviews of aquaculture laws and regulations from the top 40 aquaculture producing countries, and have been prepared in collaboration with the FAO Development Law Service. The preparation of the overviews is primary based on FAOLEX, a legislative database containing the world's largest electronic collection of national laws and regulations on food and agriculture, following a standard template. FAO endeavours to ensure, through consultation and verification process, the accuracy of the information contained in the NALO fact sheets. However, certain NALO fact sheets have been published on the basis that the information contained therein will be corrected if need be at the request of the competent national authorities. NALO fact sheets are updated on a regular basis, every 2/3 years.
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UN: FAO Committee on Fisheries
Research
Apr 24 - 2025
EN Global

Spatial distribution of fishmeal and fish oil factories around the globe

Science Advances

Fishmeal and fish oil (FMFO) are critical inputs for the compound aquatic feeds sustaining the fed aquaculture sector, yet there is limited publicly available information on the location of FMFO production factories around the globe. This makes it difficult to assess the environmental, social, and economic impacts of individual factories and the industry’s footprint as a whole. To fill this knowledge gap, we compiled location data for FMFO factories across 63 producing countries. We identified 506 factories owned and/or operated by 413 companies. We provide an open-source database that includes FMFO factory locations, company names, and raw material types. This study offers a first look at the spatial distribution of the FMFO industry and serves as a valuable resource for marine resource managers and policymakers. Knowing the locations of factories and where FMFO production is concentrated can inform the development of cooperative national and international policies to ensure environmentally and socially responsible standards. By Lauren A. Shea, Colette C. C. Wabnitz, William W. L. Cheung, Daniel Pauly, U. Rashid Sumaila.
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Fish Meal / Fish Oil Processing / Fish in / Fish Out (FIFO) / Hunger / Nutrition
Research
Apr 16 - 2025
EN Europe

Power structures shaping EU fisheries. How the political economy favours industrial over small scale, low impact fishing

Seas at Risk

The study commissioned by Seas At Risk, Sciaena, Ecologistas en Accion and BUND, shows how the current political economy of fisheries in the European Union favours large scale industrial fisheries to the detriment of small-scale and low-impact fisheries. Small-scale fishers are key players for coastal communities, as they create jobs and are often much more sustainable compared to their larger counterparts.  This sustainability role is critical since fishing is the first driver of marine biodiversity loss. Favouring industrial fisheries rather than small scale and low-impact fisheries is not due to flaws in the current legislation but, rather, to a lack of full implementation of the Common Fisheries Policy which already offers a series of tools to tackle the root problems. NGOs call for a full implementation and enforcement of the Common Fisheries Policy. 

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Small-scale fishers / European Commission / Investment and subsidies / Legislation
Research
Apr 12 - 2025
EN North America

Privatisation from a coastal community perspective

Maritime Studies

This article explores processes and impacts of privatisation from the perspective of coastal communities, drawing on ideas of governance, rights and the Commons, as well as previous studies of privatisation and the associated phenomenon of ‘grabbing’. The analysis shows how diverse mechanisms of privatisation are reflected in five key dimensions, relating to (a) jurisdictions; (b) the range of rights; (c) magnitude of privatisation; (d) distributional implications; and (e) community perceptions. The practical aspects of these privatisation dimensions are illustrated through three coastal community examples, drawing on several years of participatory research, with various qualitative methods producing a set of insights from community participants. A key result relates to how the community perceives privatisation, which depends less on the generic attributes of privatisation and more on how well the outcomes fit with the community’s underlying values and strategic goals. Accordingly, among the many complexities of privatisation, attention to community perceptions may be especially important, particularly in terms of community reactions to privatisation of different forms. This fits with governance results from elsewhere, and reinforces the need to understand community aspects of the Commons, with implications for the ‘blue economy’ and the future of a possibly privatized ocean.

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Research
Feb 10 - 2025
EN Europe

The reality gap: An examination of Scottish farmed salmon

WildFish

This report first gives an overview of the various marketing tools used by the Scottish salmon farming industry to represent farmed salmon as a sustainable, healthy and eco-friendly protein choice. It then examines the environmental and welfare performance of Scotland’s seven salmon farming companies, all widely used in the hospitality and retail sectors. 

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Certification schemes / Salmon / Chemicals (e.g. Formaldehyde)
Research
Feb 02 - 2025
EN Europe

The economics of fish farming and fish welfare in Europe

Animal Ask

Animal Ask conducted a systematic review on the economics of fish production in European aquaculture, searching over 23,000 scientific publications and industry, government, and NGO reports from countries across Europe to extract economic data and other insights. This report contains the detailed results from this review. By Ren Ryba, PhD

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Value chain / Animal Ethics
Research
Feb 01 - 2025
EN Europe

Mapping the industry and supply chain for farmed fish in Europe

Animal Ask

Animal Ask conducted mapping of the industry and supply chain for fish production in European aquaculture. This report provided key results from this industry and supply chain mapping. The goal of this report is to provide fish welfare advocates with an easy-to-understand guide to the aquaculture industry and supply chain in Europe. By Max Carpendale & George Bridgwater

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Value chain
Research
Jan 18 - 2025
EN Europe

Follow-up inquiry into salmon farming in Scotland

Rural Affairs and Islands Committee

In 2023, the RAI Committee agreed to undertake a follow-up inquiry into salmon farming at the earliest opportunity and this inquiry commenced in April 2024. The RAI Committee's inquiry focused on the implementation of the main recommendations made by the REC Committee, spread across four key themes:

  • fish health and welfare;
  • environmental impacts;
  • interactions between wild and farmed salmon; and
  • salmon farm consents and planning.
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Animal Ethics / Infrastructure (Cages or processing plants) / Legislation / Salmon / Organic waste (e.g. feed or feces) / Chemicals (e.g. Formaldehyde) / Pesticides / Antibiotics
Research
Dec 10 - 2024
EN Global

A critical review of microplastics in the shrimp farming environment: Incidence, characteristics, effects, and a first mass balance model

Science of the Total Environment

This review provides a critical overview of the sources, incidence, accumulation, effects, and interactions of microplastics (MPs) with other contaminants in the shrimp aquaculture environment, emphasizing this sector's challenges and future implications. By Federico Páez-Osuna, Gladys Valencia-Castañeda, Daniela Bernot-Simon, Uriel Arreguin-Rebolledo
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Inorganic waste (e.g. plastics) / Infrastructure (Cages or processing plants) / Shrimp
Research
Nov 12 - 2024
EN Global

Social benefits and environmental performance of aquaculture need to improve worldwide

Communications Earth & Environment

As a crucial source of protein for humans, aquaculture provides societal benefits but also poses environmental costs making it pivotal to strike a balance between costs and benefits to ensure aquaculture sustainability. Here we developed a composite sustainability index integrating societal benefits and environmental costs of aquaculture. The results show that two-fifths of the 161 countries achieved a high sustainability score (score > 50) in 2018, indicating a considerable need for improvement in the sustainability of aquaculture worldwide. This was particularly true for Asian countries (average score 45.01 ± 11.44), while European countries outperformed other regions (60.15 ± 13.64). Moreover, a Boosted Regression Tree model revealed that 59.3% of the variance in aquaculture sustainability was supported by eight indicators, including social factors, geographical effects, and aquaculture structures. By focusing on bivalve production and maintaining an optimized choice of fishes and shrimp taxa, the sustainability of global aquaculture could be enhanced. By Congjun Xu, Guohuan Su, Sébastien Brosse, Kangshun Zhao, Min Zhang & Jun Xu
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Organic waste (e.g. feed or feces) / Fish in / Fish Out (FIFO) / Shrimp / Bivalves / Salmon / Tilapia
Research
Oct 17 - 2024
EN Global

Aquaculture Could Harm Animal Welfare or Protect It, Depending on What Species the Farms Raise

Food Manufacturing

Billions of individual animals are being farmed without basic information to ensure minimal welfare standards. By Becca Franks and Chiawen Chiang, New York University.
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Animal Ethics
Research
Oct 16 - 2024
EN Global

A review of the global use of fishmeal and fish oil and the Fish In:Fish Out metric

Science Advances

Aquacultured carnivorous species consume most of the world’s fishmeal and fish oil (FMFO), which itself is primarily derived from small pelagic fish. This has raised concerns about the practice’s impact on wild fish stocks, ecosystems, and coastal communities that rely on these fish. The aquaculture industry claims a decreasing dependence on wild fish, relying on the Fish In:Fish Out (FIFO) metric as a ratio of the quantity of wild fish required for farmed fish production. This is misleading because it usually assumes constant FM or FO yields, inclusion rates and feed conversion ratios, which vary widely. Thus, a constant FIFO value for a given species cannot be assumed. Furthermore, low FIFO values resulting from averaging carnivores and herbivores conceal the high feed requirements of carnivore species. The increasing use of FMFO from by-products does not demonstrate a decreased use of wild fish but rather reflects a growing demand for FMFO, particularly for the fast growing and valuable salmon and shrimp farming industries. By Patricia Majluf, Kathryn Matthews, Daniel Pauly, Daniel J. Skerritt, Maria Lourdes D. Palomares
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Biodiversity loss / Fish in / Fish Out (FIFO) / Fish Meal / Fish Oil Processing / Hunger / Nutrition / Salmon / Shrimp
Research
Oct 16 - 2024
EN Global

Why aquaculture may not conserve wild fish

Science Advances

We review literature on the displacement paradox and the Jevons paradox, with consideration of their implications for the potential effects of aquaculture on wild fisheries. The Jevons paradox refers to circumstances where improvements in the efficiency of resource use lead to growth in consumption and therefore undermine conservation. The displacement paradox refers to circumstances where increasing use of a potential substitute for a resource (e.g., farmed fish) does not lead to proportionate reduction in consumption of the other resource (e.g., wild fish). The literature on the displacement paradox and the Jevons paradox suggests that there may be unanticipated consequences from the rise of aquaculture that may be detrimental for fisheries conservation. Here, we present theoretical explanations, drawing on the tragedy of the commodity, for understanding the tendencies for these technological paradoxes to occur and emphasize their relevance for concerns associated with fisheries and aquaculture systems. By Spencer Roberts, Jennifer Jacquet, Patricia Majluf, Matthew N. Hayek
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Parasites (e.g. sea lice) / Chemicals (e.g. Formaldehyde) / Pesticides / Antibiotics / Biodiversity loss / Fish in / Fish Out (FIFO) / Fish Meal / Fish Oil Processing / Salmon / Tuna / Shrimp
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