FAO FISHERIES AND AQUACULTURE TECHNICAL PAPER 549
Abstract
Mariculture accounts for about one-half of total aquaculture production by weight. About one-half of the mariculture production consists of aquatic plants, with the remainder being fish and invertebrates. Nearly all of mariculture is inshore. In contrast, offshore mariculture, which is practised in the open sea with significant exposure to wind and wave action and with equipment and servicing vessels operating in severe sea conditions from time to time, is in its infancy and production is almost exclusively of fish and shellfish. There is an impetus for mariculture to move to the unprotected waters of the open sea. Issues at the local level include competition for space, water quality problems, and a negative public perception of mariculture’s environmental and aesthetic impacts. At the global level, there is concern for food security with expanding population along with the conviction that the potential of the world’s oceans to supplement the food supply is vastly underutilized. Prospecting for suitable locations is a critical part of spatial planning for offshore mariculture’s near-future development. Thus, the objectives of this technical paper are to provide measures of the status and potential for offshore mariculture development from a spatial perspective that are comprehensive of all maritime nations and comparable among them, to identify nations not yet practising mariculture that have a high offshore potential for it, and to stimulate interest in detailed assessments of offshore mariculture potential at national levels.
Offshore mariculture potential is large. At present, 44 percent of maritime nations with 0.3 million kilometres of coastline are not yet practising mariculture. About half of the mariculture nations have outputs of less than 1 tonne/kilometre of coastline. About one-half of inshore mariculture production consists of aquatic plants, but there is little production of plants offshore. Scenarios using 5 and 1 percent of the area meeting all of the criteria for each of the three species showed that development of relatively small offshore areas could substantially increase overall mariculture production. Improvements in culture technologies allowing for greater depths and increased autonomies, as well as the further development of free-floating or propelled offshore installations, would add greatly to the area with potential for offshore mariculture development.
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