Sustainable Fisheries and aquaculture

Science topics & groups

Science group

Socio-economics of fisheries and aquaculture

People across the world are dependent upon fisheries and aquaculture for food, livelihood and income. It is therefore essential to ensure the sustainability of seafood production for generations to come.

Science group

Optimising aquaculture

Using satellite remote sensing methods to improve the efficiency of aquaculture management and spatial planning. Developing new methods for automatic mapping of aquaculture structures at large scale.

Science group

Food security

Supporting sustainable fisheries by understanding their interaction with the ecosystem and the environment and how this can change due to global changes as well as management decisions.

Science group

Sustainable fisheries and aquaculture

Fisheries and aquaculture are important contributors to global food security. Critical issues affecting fisheries are overseen by international strategies: in particular, SDG 14 Life Below Water provides targets on sustainable fishing, supporting small-scale fisheries and countering illegal fishing....

AgZero+ Towards sustainable, climate-neutral farming
Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) is a partner in a major five-year £13.8 million research programme, named “AgZero+’, to support the UK’s transition towards home-grown food production that is sustainable, carbon-neutral and has a positive effect on nature.
MSPACE: Marine Spatial Planning Addressing Climate Effects
MSPACE is a 3 year project designed to drive forward the capability of the four UK nations in designing and implementing climate-smart marine spatial plans.
COMFORT: Our common future ocean in the Earth system – quantifying coupled cycles of carbon, oxygen, and nutrients for determining and achieving safe operating spaces with respect to tipping points
COMFORT will identify tipping point in future marine ecosystems induced by climate change and the associated multiple stressors. The impact of these tipping points on ecosystems will then be assessed and the safe operating space to avoid them identified.
Services based on Ecosystem data AssiMiLation: Essential Science and Solutions (SEAMLESS)
SEAMLESS aims at improving the current European capability to simulate and predict the state of marine ecosystems.
FutureMARES: Climate Change and Future Marine Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity
FutureMARES is examining the relations between climate change, marine biodiversity and ecosystem services.
GCRF Blue Communities
GCRF Blue Communities is a 4 year research capacity-building programme for marine planning in East and South-East (E/SE) Asia, funded by UK Research and Innovation’s £225 million Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF). The programme has 12 interconnected research projects, which will...

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Related News

18 June 2026

A ‘super’ El Niño has the power to devastate fishing – and leave seals and sea lions starving

PML’s Dr Samantha Garrard has written for The Conversation UK about the growing likelihood of a “super” El Niño event developing in the Pacific Ocean – and how this extreme climate phenomenon could have devastating impacts.