Blue Foods encompass over 3,000 species of animals and plants that are either captured through fisheries or produced in aquaculture farms. They are a pillar of food security, providing nutrition for over 3 billion humans and livelihoods to hundreds of millions of people.
Since 2017, aquaculture systems have become major contributors to the production of blue foods, surpassing the contribution of fisheries to food security due to several issues within the sector. Several culture systems have been used to produce a diverse array of aquatic products, ranging from small-scale ponds to large scale aquaculture farms in coastal areas and the open ocean, as well as inland systems and land-based systems.
These systems, however, do experience several difficulties in providing regular outputs linked to several constraints which include aquafeeds, disease control and outbreaks, genetic escapes, water quality and pollution, water scarcity, HABs, CHABs, energy, GHG emission, and climate change.
In this presentation, an overview of the different types of aquaculture production systems used in marine, brackish and freshwater environments with key produced Blue Food species/groups of species are given. The advantages and drawbacks of these systems are covered. The most sustainable aquaculture production systems are also presented with examples of successful systems (i.e. RAS, IMTA, Aquaponics, Shellfish Farms, Microalgae Farms, Macroalgae farms, BFT). The link between sustainable aquaculture systems, climate change and SDGs is discussed to reflect on the policy and legislation’s strengths and gaps with an emphasis on environmentally-adaptive aquaculture systems and the role Artificial Intelligence (AI) can play in sustainable Blue Foods production.