JEDDAH – The offshore aquaculture industry has requested that United Nations' FAO conduct an assessment of the access and operational frameworks for open ocean mariculture in the high seas, and make recommendations on how to encourage work toward mariculture in waters beyond any one nation's EEZs. A statement to this effect was drafted at The Offshore Mariculture Conference, held in Izmir, Turkey recently and the Turkish government offered to formally convey the request to FAO, Offshore Mariculture and fishupdate.com said. The statement adopted at the conclusion of the conference drew from a number of preceding declarations – including the 2010 Global Conference on Aquaculture, the Phuket Consensus of 2010, and the Colombo Declaration of 2011, all of which have emphasized the critical role for aquaculture in feeding the world, stimulating economic development, providing employment and reducing existing negative impacts on the marine environment. Most recently, the Bremerhaven Declaration of 2012 spoke specifically of the need for increased research, development, investment and policy frameworks for open ocean aquaculture. “There is growing interest from the private sector in exploring the potential for aquaculture in waters that are increasingly deeper, and further offshore" said conference chairman Neil Anthony Sims of Kampachi Farms, LLC. “Given that many nations – such as those in the Mediterranean – still only exert national authority as far as 12 miles offshore, then there is a looming question about what happens in the “Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction" (ABNJ). We need to start to address this in anticipation of, and in order to encourage these developments." Dr Durali Kocak, Director-General of Fisheries and Aquaculture at the Turkish Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, who opened the conference, described how the Turkish government had prioritized aquaculture development. The industry in Turkey is expanding at a phenomenal rate, as it indeed must, to meet the growing demand, but care is being taken to ensure that such growth is within the sea's ecological limits, he said. Other presentations explored a range of planning and management tools that are being set up around the world – the Philippines, Australia, the Basque country of Spain, and host country Turkey – to better integrate aquaculture into coastal planning initiatives. New species development, provision of seed (fish fingerlings or bivalve spat) and feed developments for offshore mariculture were also reviewed. Economic analysis of the co-location plans suggests that mussels may prove profitable, but fin-fish and macroalgae culture require further engineering to achieve efficient scale and valued products. Turkey now has the third fastest growth rate in aquaculture globally. – SG
