Ann Arbor Times

Humanity can increase seafood farming while reducing its impact on marine biodiversity, according to research led by the University of Michigan. The study suggests that strategic planning is crucial to achieving sustainable mariculture development.

Deqiang Ma, who led the study as a postdoctoral researcher at U-M's School for Environment and Sustainability, emphasized the importance of planning: “We can achieve this sustainable mariculture development. With strategic planning, we can achieve the goal of conserving marine species while meeting the global demand for the expansion of mariculture.”

Mariculture involves farming saltwater seafood and accounted for about 20% of farmed food from fisheries in 2020. As demand for seafood rises, mariculture production is expanding rapidly. To assess its effects on over 20,000 marine species, Ma and an international team developed a predictive model.

The model forecasts changes in mariculture impacts by 2050 under various scenarios, including different climate conditions. The best-case scenario suggested significant increases in bivalve and finfish production with reduced environmental impact: “Bivalve production could increase by 2.36-fold and finfish could increase by 1.82-fold compared to current production—projections of what is needed to meet global demand—but the global mariculture impacts would decrease by up to 30.5% under the best-case scenario,” Ma explained.

Conversely, building new farms in high-impact areas could worsen biodiversity impacts significantly more than random site selection.

Neil Carter, U-M senior study author and associate professor of environment and sustainability, highlighted interdisciplinary collaboration: “It is critically important to leverage the growing insights across disciplines, whether it’s climate change science or economics or marine production.”

Researchers from institutions including the University of Washington, University of Freiburg in Germany, Hokkaido University in Japan, and UCSB participated in this collaborative effort.

Study co-author Benjamin Halpern from UCSB noted challenges but emphasized potential benefits: “But I’ve done this kind of work a lot in my career, and the payoffs can be enormous.” He stressed cross-disciplinary research's relevance to society and science.

Ma and Carter acknowledged their paper as a preliminary step toward sustainable mariculture futures. They pointed out that opportunities vary globally; strategies suitable for one region may not apply elsewhere.

Developing mariculture affects iconic marine mammals like whales across all scenarios studied. However, understanding these trade-offs aids better decision-making before implementation.

Carter concluded with optimism about mitigating industry impacts through collaboration: “With these insights...the next part...is getting policymakers and communities to interact...to reduce those impacts.”

The project received funding from U-M's School for Environment and Sustainability and Institute for Global Change Biology.