Developing novel socio-environmental indicators and management tools for a sustainable aquaculture (AquaAccept)

Informations

Funding country

Norway

Acronym

-

URL

-

Start date

1/1/2015

End date

12/31/2019

Budget

1,050,051 EUR

Fundings

Abstract

The main aim of the AquaAccept project is to investigate the acceptable impacts of aquaculture on marine coastal areas from a multidisciplinary point of view, involving experts in biology, ecology, economy, sociology and computer sciences. The final goal of the project is to implement a decision support tool to help stakeholders and administrator to manage the conflicts between aquaculture and other activities in the same area. The focus of the laboratory-based studies in the project has been directed towards the development of novel and sensitive analysis tools (biosensors) for detection and quantification of sea lice (L. salmonis) in the water column. The sea lice occurrence is one of the major challenges for the aquaculture expansion in coastal areas and is considered the main environmental indicators in the Norwegian traffic ?light system?, which discriminate between production area potentiality (expansion or reduction). If the parasites could be detected rapidly, specific measures against the infestation would be taken earlier, leading to more rapid and effective results, less use of harmful chemicals and increased benefits for the marine environment. A review has been completed to give an overview of tools and approaches currently available and adopted to document sustainability of salmon aquaculture in Norway. The results of a national and a local (Finnøy, Rogaland) surveys about the attitudes towards aquaculture show that local residents, who live in a community in which aquaculture is present, are not more negative towards aquaculture than is the general public; instead, they are rather pragmatic: ?everyone has to make a living?. However, there is a different understanding of the sustainability concept among the local residents and actors in marine activities: this is one of the key points which make communication challenging between stakeholders? groups. A similar survey carried out in Ireland (Mulroy Bay) shows that the Irish population seems more negative towards aquaculture activities, than Norwegian. In addition, the willingness to pay (WTP) a price premium for sustainably farmed salmon results in 41% in the Norwegian case and only 21% in the Irish case. This should translate to higher revenues for Norwegian farmers using sustainable production methods. However, in the absence of regulations, getting farming companies to effectively apply sustainable production methods will ultimately depend on the cost of doing so being within the premium range of WTP of consumers. The decision support tool SEAGRID represents a user-friendly managing tool to evaluate interactions (conflicts and synergies) between human activities which take place in specific marine areas, to quantify environmental, social and economic suitability and, finally, to provide stakeholders involved in Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) with a transparent decision-making support. It allows stakeholders and decision makers to make spatial choices that strike a balance between multiple ecological, economic and social objectives. The SEAGRID has implemented scenarios for Boknafjord (Rogaland) to assess environmental suitability as well as socio-economic considerations.