Aquaculture in Hawai‘i – Ancient Traditions, Modern Innovation

Development of Hawai?i’s aquaculture industry was influenced early on by several key factors, beginning with the long history of aquatic farming by indigenous Hawaiians prior to Western contact. The ethnic diversity stemming from immigration, early investment in research and development and the availability of a wide range of species, systems and natural resources made Hawai?i a living laboratory for experimentation and innovation. The result today is a vibrant aquaculture landscape combining ancient and new practices. Dozens of animal and plant species have been successfully cultured and new technologies are constantly emerging. [More..]

Editor's Note - The IPCC Paints a Gloomy Picture for the World’s Oceans

As a companion to the IPCC Special Report on Climate Change and Land, discussed in my last editorial, a recent Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate has been released. Regarding the oceans, warming, deoxygenation and acidification are the major concerns. Overall, from the perspective of coastal aquaculture, the world’s oceans are becoming less hospitable places to grow fish. The report flatly states that “over the 21st century, the ocean is projected to transition to unprecedented conditions.” [More..]

The key role of functional aquafeeds to achieve a more sustainable aquaculture

Aquaculture's unparalleled growth cannot be achieved at the expense of environmental and social responsibilities. Efficient policies and legal frameworks are needed to safeguard sustainable and equitable aquaculture development with generalized and improved socioeconomic benefits to players along the production and value chain.

The need to decrease the dependence on fish meal and fish oil in the formulation of suitable aquafeeds for cultured species (especially marine) has long been recognized by the aquaculture sector. The stagnation of world fisheries, along with the decreasing trend of fish captures destined for non-food uses (Food and Agriculture Organization, 2018), has prompted the aquafeed sector to explore alternative ingredients, either marine or land based. Although this search has often pointed toward a number of alternative protein sources, the sustainability of using such alternative ingredients has often been questioned. For instance, soy-based protein produc [More..]

RAS believers making an early stand on American soil

Domestically produced, fresh Atlantic salmon is hitting the U.S. marketplace. That’s nothing new.

What is new is that these fish aren’t from traditional ocean-based farms. They’re from land-based aquaculture facilities in places most people wouldn’t expect.

For industry insiders, the emergence of land-based aquaculture is not too surprising, seen as a response to demand for Atlantic salmon and locally produced food with a low environmental footprint. Despite the considerable expense to build a suitable facility that can produce fish at commercial scale, two prominent producers are making waves with this market-leading species, recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) and are poised to make an early stand in the United States.

The first RAS producer to bring Atlantic salmon to market did so this past July, when Superior Fresh LLC harvested its first batch at its facility in Northfield, Wisc., a thousand miles from the nearest ocean.
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A perspective of the future value and challenges of genetic engineering in aquaculture

Within the last decade, advancements in genetic engineering technologies have increased the efficiency at which these techniques can be applied in animals, including fish. An animal is considered genetically engineered if its DNA has been intentionally and artificially altered to achieve a specific trait. The most common genetic engineering strategies include transgenics and gene editing, the latter of which likely has the greatest potential to advance the genetics of food production. [More..]

Journal of the World Aquaculture Society Editor's Choice Awards for October 2019

The editors of The Journal of the World Aquaculture Society (JWAS) are pleased to announce the Editor's Choice Awards for the October 2019 issue of JWAS. [More..]

The Failure of MUMS and Aquaculture Indexing

For those of us around in the late 1990s and early 2000s as members of the Minor Use and Minor Species (MUMS) coalition, there was probably nothing as significant or important as the effort to change the way we approve drugs and therapeutants for aquaculture animals. Until then all animals were treated the same when it came to getting a label through the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Veterinary Medicine (CVM), including a lengthy and cost-prohibitive approval process. All major species — domestic dogs and cats, cattle, pigs, horses and poultry — have markets large enough to justify the high costs of traditional labeling, but how do you get a drug for a parakeet, an alpaca or a dwarf cichlid? MUMS! [More..]

Editor's Note - Aquaculture and the IPCC Climate and Land Report

The IPCC summarized the recently released Climate and Land Report with a tweet that said “Land is under growing human pressure. Land is a part of the solution. But land can’t do it all.” The report describes how the changing climate is degrading the capacity of land to grow food, already exacerbated by poor land-use practices in some areas. The urgency to act is reinforced by the need to limit warming this century to 1.5 C to avoid effects that are increasingly being described using terms like “crisis” or “emergency.” To avoid the 1.5 C temperature change, greenhouse gas emissions would have to be reduced to zero by mid-century. [More..]