Aquatic food security: insights into challenges and solutions from an analysis of interactions between fisheries, aquaculture, food safety, human health, fish and human welfare, economy and environment AbstractFisheries and aquaculture production, imports, exports and equitability of distribution determine the supply of aquatic food to people. Aquatic food security is achieved when a food supply is sufficient, safe, sustainable, shockproof and sound: sufficient, to meet needs and preferences of people; safe, to provide nutritional benefit while posing minimal health risks; sustainable, to provide food now and for future generations; shock-proof, to provide resilience to shocks in production systems and supply chains; and sound, to meet legal and ethical standards for welfare of animals, people and environment. Here, we present an integrated assessment of these elements of the aquatic food system in the United Kingdom, a system linked to dynamic global networks of producers, processors and markets. Our assessment addresses sufficiency of supply from aquaculture, fisheries and trade; safety of supply given biological, chemical and radiation hazards; social, economic and environmental sustainability of production systems and supply chains; system resilience to social, economic and environmental shocks; welfare of fish, people and environment; and the authenticity of food. Conventionally, these aspects of the food system are not assessed collectively, so information supporting our assessment is widely dispersed. Our assessment reveals trade-offs and challenges in the food system that are easily overlooked in sectoral analyses of fisheries, aquaculture, health, medicine, human and fish welfare, safety and environment. We highlight potential benefits of an integrated, systematic and ongoing process to assess security of the aquatic food system and to predict impacts of social, economic and environmental change on food supply and demand.Keywords Ethics, food safety, food security, food system, health, sustainability F I S H and F I S H E R I E S , 2016, 17, 893-938Received 16 Nov 2015 Accepted 21 Jan 2016 Introduction 894The aquatic food system 898Wild-capture fisheries 898Aquaculture production 899Critical elements of food security 900 Sufficient food supply 901Sufficiency of UK supply: production and consumption 901Global production and consumption 903Safe food supply 904 Biological hazards 904Pathogens of human concern 904Marine biotoxins 906 Chemical hazards 906 Contaminants and veterinary residues 906Radiation hazards 908 Sustainable food supply 908Wild-capture fisheries 909Aquaculture production 914Relative impacts of fishing and aquaculture 915Processing 915 Drivers of sustainability 916Shockproof food supply 917Risks to wild-capture production 917Risks to aquaculture production 919Risks to supply chains 920 Sound food supply 921Social welfare and ethics 922Environmental welfare and ethics 924Animal welfare and ethics 925 Food authenticity 926Conclusions 927Acknowledgements 931References 931 IntroductionFood f...

International audienceMarine recreational fishing (MRF) is a high-participation activity with large economic value and social benefits globally, and it impacts on some fish stocks. Although reporting MRF catches is a European Union legislative requirement, estimates are only available for some countries. Here, data on numbers of fishers, participation rates, days fished, expenditures, and catches of two widely targeted species were synthesized to provide European estimates of MRF and placed in the global context. Uncertainty assessment was not possible due to incomplete knowledge of error distributions; instead, a semi-quantitative bias assessment was made. There were an estimated 8.7 million European recreational sea fishers corresponding to a participation rate of 1.6%. An estimated 77.6 million days were fished, and expenditure was €5.9 billion annually. There were higher participation, numbers of fishers, days fished and expenditure in the Atlantic than the Mediterranean, but the Mediterranean estimates were generally less robust. Comparisons with other regions showed that European MRF participation rates and expenditure were in the mid-range, with higher participation in Oceania and the United States, higher expenditure in the United States, and lower participation and expenditure in South America and Africa. For both northern European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax, Moronidae) and western Baltic cod (Gadus morhua, Gadidae) stocks, MRF represented 27% of the total removals. This study highlights the importance of MRF and the need for bespoke, regular and statistically sound data collection to underpin European fisheries management. Solutions are proposed for future MRF data collection in Europe and other regions to support sustainable fisheries management

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Summary1. Commercial fisheries risk unintentionally depleting local population components if stock management units do not reflect the population structure of the species. Atlantic cod Gadus morhua L. was over exploited in the sea areas around the British Isles in the last century and is struggling to recover. There is an urgent need to define the biological stock structure to improve management. 2. In this study, we used data recovered from temperature and depth loggers attached to 252 Atlantic cod to infer and map their movements around the British Isles. Individual cod showed a range of behaviours including migration, site fidelity and limited home ranging. We estimated home ranges and seasonal movements and test predictions based on data from population genetics. Cod from a northern offshore area in the North Sea did not mix with cod from the central and southern North Sea, which in turn did not mix with those from western areas (the Celtic and Irish Seas). 3. Cod experienced average monthly temperatures between 6 and 17°C and occupied average depths between 15 and 165 m. Cod that occupied the deeper northern offshore area lived in colder and less variable waters than elsewhere. Differences in thermal experience are likely to underpin variation in physiology and growth rate that will have implications for how the species responds to climate change. 4. This study provides evidence that cod living around the British Isles are comprised of at least one more distinct population unit that is currently recognized for stock management purposes. Failure to recognize this complexity of stock structure in past management plans is likely to have been a contributory factor to the over-exploitation of cod stocks around the British Isles. 5. Synthesis and applications. The results of this study and recent genetic research provide a new and more definitive understanding of movement patterns and population structure of cod around the British Isles. The applied implication of this is that spatially explicit adjustment of exploitation strategies, for example setting a maximum sustainable yield for each of the population units, should be considered to ensure sustainable harvesting of cod in the future.

Marine environmental monitoring is undertaken to provide evidence that environmental management targets are being met. Moreover, monitoring also provides context to marine science and over the last century has allowed development of a critical scientific understanding of the marine environment and the impacts that humans are having on it. The seas around the UK are currently monitored by targeted, impact-driven, programmes (e.g., fishery or pollution based monitoring) often using traditional techniques, many of which have not changed significantly since the early 1900s. The advent of a new wave of automated technology, in combination with changing political and economic circumstances, means that there is currently a strong drive to move toward a more refined, efficient, and effective way of monitoring. We describe the policy and scientific rationale for monitoring our seas, alongside a comprehensive description of the types of equipment and methodology currently used and the technologies that are likely to be used in the future. We contextualize the way new technologies and methodologies may impact monitoring and discuss how whole ecosystems models can give an integrated, comprehensive approach to impact assessment. Furthermore, we discuss how an understanding of the value of each data point is crucial to assess the true costs and benefits to society of a marine monitoring programme.