Policy reforms and technological improvements could drive seafood production upward by as much as 75% over the next three decades, research by Oregon State University and an international collaboration suggests.
Policy reforms and technological improvements could drive seafood production upward by as much as 75% over the next three decades, research by Oregon State University and an international collaboration suggests.
The findings, published today in Nature, are important because by 2050 the Earth will have an estimated 9.8 billion human mouths to feed, a 2 billion increase in population from 2020. Seafood has the potential to meet much of the increased need for protein and nutrients, researchers say.
Marine ecologist Jane Lubchenco, university distinguished professor in the OSU College of Science, joined scientists from the United States, China, Chile, Mexico, Japan, South Africa, Spain, Norway, Argentina and Malaysia in analyzing how much food the ocean could be expected to sustainably produce 30 years from now.
Examining the sea’s primary food-producing sectors – wild fisheries and the mariculture of finfish such as tuna and snapper as well as bivalves like clams and oysters – the researchers determined estimates of “sustainable supply curves” that take into consideration ecological, economic, regulatory and technological limitations. Mariculture means cultivating marine organisms for food and other products in coastal seawater environments or the open ocean.
Read more at Oregon State University
Image: Maine aquaculture pic courtesy Costello lab, UCSB
