Report of Working Group 24 on Environmental Interactions of Marine Aquaculture

Abstract

This report is a summary of the activities that WG 24 undertook from 2009 to 2012. The Working Group, with the guidance of FIS and MEQ, refined the activities under the terms of reference so that each PICES member country with active Working Group members could contribute to the report. This refinement was required due to the different types of expertise needed to meet the three very different activities outlined in the terms of reference.Through topic sessions, workshops and targeted Working Group activities, different aspects of sustainable marine aquaculture research relevant to WG 24’s terms of reference were highlighted. Research activities in all PICES member countries focus on identifying aquaculture–environment interactions, whether to model the impacts or to minimize them through optimizing culture approaches, as well as on research related to disease identification and management.Based on the experience of WG 24 and the direction of PICES under its FUTURE science plan, some marine aquaculture issues and analysis can be more holistically addressed through expert groups that include consideration of anthropogenic stressor effects on the marine environment. Additionally, any future marine aquaculture-related PICES expert group should be more narrowly focused to not only allow for more directed work, but also to increase the likelihood of experts from all PICES member countries being able to participate and contribute.This report is composed of three sections: Assessing environmental interactions of marine aquaculture, marine aquaculture legislative frameworks and environmental interactions research, and pathogens of aquatic animals organized as country reports.