ETC BE Report 2024/3: Accelerating the Transition to Sustainable Seafood Production in Europe’s Seas

17 Dec 2024

Lara Salvany, Saša Raicevich, Tommaso Petochi, Anne Cooper, Giovanna Marino, Tomaso Fortibuoni, François Bastardie, Ena Briesemeister, Luca Lamoni, Colin Millar, Natacha Carvalho

The marine environment faces numerous challenges including overfishing, pollution, and climate change, impacting biodiversity. Despite these issues, it provides crucial ecosystem services supporting human wellbeing, including food provisioning through fisheries and aquaculture.

We present a novel framework for analyzing the impacts of the different types of fisheries and aquaculture practices in EU waters. Using risk-based methods, we identify pressures and effects on the different ecosystems components. We also explore potential solutions and mitigation measures to address overexploitation in fisheries and promote sustainable aquaculture in Europe’s regional seas.

Finally, we outline an approach to assess the performance of existing measures for fisheries and aquaculture in EU waters, identifying the need for upscaling or complementing with new measures.

Prepared by:

Lead authors: Lara Salvany (ICES), Saša Raicevich (ISPRA), Tommaso Petochi (ISPRA), Anne Cooper (ICES), Giovanna Marino (ISPRA), Tomaso Fortibuoni (ISPRA), François Bastardie (Alma Maris), Ena Briesemeister (ICES), Luca Lamoni (ICES), Colin Millar (ICES) and Natacha Carvalho (EEA)
EEA project manager: Natacha Carvalho
Coordination: Claudia Neitzel (NIVA)
Language Check: Shane Hume (LESP)
Layout: Oda Ellingsen (NIVA)