New Publication: Scientific Opinion on Food from the Oceans [08.01.18]
We are very pleased to inform you that a scientific opinion ''Food from the Oceans" has now been published and submitted to the European Commission by the European Commission's High Level Group of independent scientific advisors.
This Scientific Opinion responds to a request from the European Commission formulated by Commissioner Karmenu Vella (Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries) for scientific advice on how more food and biomass can be obtained from the oceans in a way that does not deprive future generations of their benefits.
The advice centres on five sets of recommendations. The first calls for mainstreaming a "food from the ocean" paradigm based on responsible culture and capture, into a broad food systems policy framework, as well as into other relevant EU and global systems-level policy agendas. Reflecting the fact that scientific evidence points to mariculture (marine aquaculture) as having the biggest potential to increase food from the ocean, the second set pertains to the development of mariculture globally. As far as Europe's part in this is concerned, this would require raising the strategic priority of mariculture and bringing all available means to bear on facilitating its development – notably marine spatial planning and other such integrated planning and assessment tools. The importance of the continued development of responsible fisheries management and maintaining marine ecosystems is reflected in a set of recommendations aimed at sustaining wild-capture. A fourth set aims at facilitating policy change by optimizing the use of instruments such as the Open Method of Coordination as well as the forthcoming Blue Bioeconomy Forum. The final set targets future-proofing policy by recommending further development of the Common Fisheries Policy science advice system and actions to fill key knowledge gaps such as scientifically-motivated pilot fishing of as-yet unexploited lower trophic-level species.
This Scientific Opinion will inform preparation for the successor of the present European Maritime and Fisheries Fund and, more broadly, policy development and implementation in the coming years to help increase responsible harvesting of food from the ocean.
The Scientific Opinion is based on a detailed analysis of publicly-available scientific evidence and literature as well as close consultation with the scientific community. In particular, it is informed by an accompanying Evidence Review Report produced by SAPEA, an independent, Horizon-2020-funded consortium of European scientific academy networks, which constitutes a key component of the European Commission's Scientific Advice Mechanism.