The 46th UJNR Scientific Symposium “Marine Aquaculture in a Changing Environment” was held from 13 to 16 November, 2018, in Mystic, Connecticut. This year’s meeting included talks on ocean acidification, heat resistance, ecosystem services, aquaculture’s habitat value, and production technologies.
The long-standing U.S.-Japan Natural Resources (UJNR) Aquaculture Panel is a cooperative research exchange between the United States and Japan, addressing environmental and technical issues that affect the aquaculture industries of both nations. The 2018 event was the second year of three for the current theme (“Marine Aquaculture in a Changing Environment”), but the U.S.-Japan aquaculture partnership spans a long list of topics going back almost 50 years.
Environmental change impacts aquaculture in many ways, as this year's meeting agenda highlighted. For example, nutrient pollution is driving eutrophication and dead zones, ocean acidification is changing water chemistry, and climate change is already influencing food supply, fresh water availability, and weather. Aquaculture will be impacted by, and can also impact, these environmental changes. Aquaculture of finfish, shellfish and seaweed have different threats, benefits, and opportunities related to environmental change.
Since 1971, NOAA Fisheries and the Japanese Fisheries Research and Education Agency have collaborated through the U.S.-Japan Natural Resources (UJNR) Aquaculture Panel. An annual meeting framework, the Panel allows scientists to share research results, new technology, and approaches to sustainable seafood farming.
Mike Rust, NOAA Fisheries scientist and U.S. Chair of the UJNR Aquaculture Panel, said in a press release, “The United States is behind in both the scale of marine aquaculture and the science and technology effort to support a sustainable industry. This partnership gives U.S. researchers a chance to understand where Japan is going in aquaculture and learn from Japan’s experience.”
NOAA estimates the value of U.S. marine aquaculture production at only USD 418.3 million (EUR 364.7 million) in 2106. The main products were oysters (USD 192 million, EUR 167.4 million), clams (USD 138 million, EUR 120.3 million), salmon (USD 68 million, EUR 59.2 million), mussels (USD 10 million, EUR 8.7 million), and shrimp (USD 10 million, EUR 8.7 million). The United States is a minor aquaculture producer, ranked 16th worldwide in 2016. Nearly 90 percent of seafood consumed in the U.S is imported, with half of this from aquaculture.
Japan (in 2015) ranked 11th in the world with 11 million metric tons. Marine aquaculture production was worth JPY 405.9 billion (USD 3.6 billion, EUR 3.2 billion). Major products include sea bream, flounder, yellowtail, bluefin tuna, oysters, and scallops. Kelp and seaweed are also important in Japan.
As some examples of presentations on the current theme, Professor Tamiji Yamamoto of Hiroshima University, Graduate School of Biosphere Science, presented on “Oligotrophication and its measures in the Seto Inland Sea” at last year’s symposium, discussing how measures to fight red tides due to eutrophication from high phosphorus levels resulted in the opposite problem of a lack of inorganic phosphorus limiting the growth of phytoplankton and limiting the food available to wild fish. Meanwhile, Coleen Suckling, Lecturer in Marine Biology, School of Ocean Sciences, Bangor University, UK presented on “A slow growing perspective on multi-generational responses to future change.”
The final meeting on the current theme will take place in Japan.
Image courtesy of NOAA Fisheries
