Marine aquaculture is the most promising industry for ensuring future provision of seafood. Yet, the worldwide growth and expansion of this industry have been slower than expected, calling for the identification of environmentally suitable sites while accounting for all factors that could constrain or benefit its establishment. Here, we determine the main obstacles and risks hindering the growth and expansion of marine aquaculture, as well as the needs and recommendations to overcome such constraints. Our analysis is based on results obtained from a consultation process held in 16 study sites located around the world with the participation of 614 stakeholders representing the research community, aquaculture industry, government, conservation groups, and education and fishermen associations. A high level of commonality exists in the main issues hindering aquaculture growth and expansion in coastal, off‐the‐coast and offshore aquaculture with most being attributed to interactions with other maritime activities, including conflicts with other users and administrative procedures, including licensing. Critical needs for improved management and expansion of the aquaculture industry are related to planning and management of developments and technological advances, with economic and market needs featuring to a lesser extent. Key procedures recommended to assist further aquaculture growth are the standardisation and simplification of regulatory frameworks, improvement of governance, and the adoption of participatory processes to facilitate meaningful and productive stakeholder engagement. We strongly recommend stakeholder participation to enhance insights on the full environmental and human dimensions of marine management and for implementation of ecosystem‐based marine spatial planning.

The study region in Sagres, SW Portugal, is subject to natural eutrophication of coastal waters by winddriven upwelling, which stimulates high primary productivity facilitating the recent economic expansion of bivalve aquaculture in the region. However, this economic activity is threatened by harmful algal blooms (HAB) caused by Pseudo-nitzschia spp., Dinophysis spp. and other HAB dinoflagellates, all of which can produce toxins, that can induce Amnesic Shellfish Poisoning (ASP), Diarrhetic Shellfish Poisoning (DSP) and Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning (PSP). This study couples traditional microscopy with 18S/28S rRNA microarray to improve the detection of HAB species and investigates the relation between HAB and the specific oceanographic conditions in the region. Good agreement was obtained between microscopy and microarray data for diatoms of genus Pseudo-nitzschia and dinoflagellates Dinophysis spp., Gymnodinium catenatum and raphidophyte Heterosigma akashiwo, with less effective results for Prorocentrum. Microarray provided detection of flagellates Prymnesium spp., Pseudochattonella spp., Chloromorum toxicum and the important HAB dinoflagellates of the genera Alexandrium and Azadinium, with the latter being the first recorded from the study region. Seasonality and upwelling induced by northerly winds were found to be the driving forces of HAB development, with Pseudo-nitzschia spp. causing the risk of ASP during spring and summer upwelling 2 season, and dinoflagellates causing the risk of DSP and PSP during upwelling relaxation, mainly in summer and autumn. The findings were in agreement with the results from toxicity monitoring of shellfish by the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA, 2014(IPMA, -2016 and confirm the suitability of the RNA microarray method for HAB detection and aquaculture management applications.

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