PDF Basket
Climate change poses a significant threat to the sustainable growth of aquaculture and fisheries worldwide. As the global population continues to grow and the demand for food continues to increase, climate change is affecting food production – and in particular seafood production. Steps to establish sustainable growth across the sector today could however help to ensure the long-term development of the sector for future generations.
The EU-funded ClimeFish project is working to ensure that any increase in seafood production comes in areas and for species where there is a potential for sustainable growth. In collaboration with an international network of stakeholders, the project is developing early-warning methodologies for both the fishery and aquaculture sectors. The project team is also identifying a range of strategies to help mitigate the risks that climate change poses to the sector.
The Chilean perspective
One of the project’s international stakeholders is AVS Chile, an applied research company that works with companies, universities and research centres to help meet the R&D challenges facing Chilean aquaculture.
According to AVS Chile Project Manager Pablo Ibieta, the company has two main roles within the ClimeFish project: “First, we provide relevant information on how Chile’s salmon industry, the world’s second largest, is adapting to climate change via strategies and policy actions,” he says. “At the same time, we also provide training and disseminate information about the ClimeFish methodology to Chilean stakeholders, including industry representatives, the salmon grower association, public authorities and academia.”
Specifically, the company is helping to identify risks and opportunities based on an in-depth analysis of how climate change impacts Chilean salmon farmers. Its training and dissemination activities are geared towards ensuring that the ClimeFish tools and guidelines are utilised beyond the project’s lifetime. “All of these actions have the objective of implementing best practices, enacting proactive policies and developing direct adaptation measures for reducing vulnerability to climate change among fishing and aquaculture industries,” explains Ibieta.
Action back home
One of the ClimeFish project’s key outcomes will be the provision of management plans for adapting to climate change with minimal economic and social loss. These guidelines are under development and will be available in the form of the ClimeFish Decision Support Framework (DSF) and the ClimeFish Decision Support System (DSS).
Using these two tools, AVS Chile is now working with the relevant Chilean ministries, providing them with the information and technical support needed so they can take proper action to help protect the country’s important aquaculture and fishery industries. “Although both the fishery and aquaculture industries are generally aware of the threat of climate change and the negative impact it is having on their livelihood, they have lacked the resources needed to mitigate this threat,” says Ibieta. “With the support of the ClimeFish project, these industries now have a voice both here in Chile and worldwide and, as a result, sustainable measures are being enacted.”