Beyond production: social-ecological indicators and development typologies for global aquaculture
by Stefan Partelow, Ben Nagel and Rebecca Gentry
ZMT | ZMT | Florida State University
Aquaculture is the fastest growing food production sector globally, and has now surpassed capture fisheries production. However, little is known about aquaculture development beyond species tonnage production and trade statistics. To assess the sustainable development of the sector going forward, there is a need to move beyond assessing production as a monolithic development metric towards more meaningful social and ecological indicators. In doing so, this allows for the examination of the broader drivers, challenges and potential contributions of the sector towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including food security, livelihoods and environmental protection. We collected over 75 social and ecological indicators at the country level linked to the development of the aquaculture sector in more than 100 countries. We categorized our data into the social-ecological systems framework, and performed a cluster analysis to examine comprehensive development typologies among countries facing similar social and environmental conditions related to the expansion of the sector. We then attempt to align our empirical analysis with future development scenarios in aligned with each typology. This analysis provides a much needed multidimensional assessment of the sectors broader sustainability contributions and challenges.
Operationalizing the social-ecological systems framework as a methodological tool to assess and map aquaculture sustainability
by Ben Nagel
ZMT | Jacobs University
Successfully meeting sustainable development goals and managing shared natural resources requires solutions which specifically account for variations in local social and ecological contexts. Elinor Ostrom’s social-ecological systems (SES) framework was developed as a way to assess and diagnose interlinked social and ecological variables andprocesses which have been tied to sustainable outcomes of natural resource systems, but so far has mostly been applied to individual community-level studies and few examples exist applying the framework to the rapidly growing sector of aquaculture. In my PhD project, I will explore methods to apply the SES framework across multiple localities for a comparative analysis of aquaculture SES sustainability challenges on the island of Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. First, I will use a participatory fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM) approach to generate and explore mental models of how different stakeholder groups perceive aquaculture as an SES. These stakeholder mental models will inform the selection of appropriate SES framework variables which will then be applied to a district-level assessment of aquaculture SESs across Lombok, combining secondary data and standardized expert questionnaires to gather data for each district. This study aims to quantitatively assess and map patterns of social and ecological heterogeneity in the Lombok aquaculture system across the 50 districts on Lombok, as well as integrate local expert knowledge into variable selection, weighting, and modeling of SES interactions to address previously recognized gaps in SES framework methodology. Results of this project may provide input for aquaculture management and policy development in the region through an integrated social-ecological approach grounded in relevance to local resource users, and facilitate future case comparisons.
Operationalizing the Social-Ecological Framework as a Deliberation Tool to Assess Target Knowledge for Aquaculture Sustainability
by Adiska Octa Paramita
Leibniz ZMT | Jacobs University
Aquaculture tonnage production has continued to grow intensively by overtaking the wild capture fisheries. Despite that, aquaculture is largely unexamined and unexplored in terms of sustainability and governance challenges. Several aquaculture co-management initiatives have been adopted in a decentralized governance system to create a collaborative and participatory process of regulatory decision making among representatives of user groups, government agencies, and research institutions. However, there are challenges in co-management arrangements related to the difficulties to integrate stakeholder preferences and values. This study argues that constructive dialogue in deliberation among actors is important to improve the implementation of co-management that encourages fairness and the ability to learn from the knowledge exchange process. As part of the COMPASS project, this research will develop methodologies to evaluate stakeholder’s perspectives, values, and normative goals with deliberative and participatory methods to support co-management arrangement. In order to do so, Social-Ecological System Framework (SESF) will be used as a practical tool for knowledge exchange and empowerment in experimental and non-experimental deliberative settings. The study will be conducted in Lombok, Indonesia, that has demonstrated movement toward sustainable aquaculture production through blue economy development strategies. Several aquaculture communities are chosen to assess the collective action problems related to an irrigation system and gender issues in aquaculture. Three research plans have been developed accordingly. First, an experimental field study to evaluate the stakeholders’ perceptions related to collective action problems in maintaining pond irrigation systems that support aquaculture. Second, a non-experimental field study to assess social-ecological understanding of different relationships between men and women with the aquaculture systems. This study aims to overcome the marginalization of women in aquaculture. Third, a literature review paper based on case studies in marine and coastal governance to understand the conceptualization and problem framing in deliberation research.
Institutions and change processes in entangled capture fisheries and aquaculture: A case study from Central Luzon, Philippines
by Aisa O. Manlosa, Anna-Katharina Hornidge and Achim Schlüter
ZMT | Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik | ZMT
How we source our fish proteins has substantially changed over the last decades. At a global scale, aquaculture now supplies more fish proteins relative to capture fisheries. As a sector for producing fish and other aquatic food, institutions for aquaculture in the form of state rules, market arrangements, or civil society norms are entangled with that of fisheries particularly when they co-exist in the same geographic area. How responsive are various institutions to the trend of growing aquaculture? An understanding of the diversity of relevant institutions in both fisheries and aquaculture, how they change, and how such institutions interact is important for fostering governance for sustainabil-ity in the context of aquaculture growth. We used a qualitative case study approach focused on three municipalities in the region of Central Luzon, Philippines. Methods included qualitative interviews (n=70), participant observations, and thematic analysis of institutional documents across scales. Findings revealed diverse and interlinked institutions in the spheres of state, market, and civil society. The institutional changes in these spheres were developmental and gradual. These were primarily driven by pragmatic needs, opportunities, and were largely enabled by collaborative social relations. A number of the changes were directly related to the increase of aquaculture production. The findings have important implications for re-shaping understanding and re-thinking actions in relation to the role of institutions in promoting sustainability in coastal social-ecological systems that are increasingly dependent on aq-uaculture. In particular, we emphasize the need for a more holistic and systemic approach in engaging with existing plural institutions in social-ecological systems.
Larvae, Cash & the City: The Social Costs of Shrimp Production in Guayaquil ́s Mangroves
by Anne-Katrin Broocks
ZMT Development and Knowledge Sociology & Socium – University of Bremen
The biggest port city of Ecuador, Guayaquil, is built within a mangrove swamp and influenced highly by the shrimp aquaculture industry, one of the biggest in the world. Production is in the hand of the economic oligarchy of Ecuador supported by transnational agro-businesses. Production was built up informally since the 1970s. Around 2000 the whitespot disease stopped nearly all shrimp production in Ecuador and led to a financial crisis. Meanwhile production has recovered. While the most obvious effect of shrimp production development was the loss of significant parts of the mangrove ecosystem, the social and cultural effects caused remained understudied so far. Analyzing discourse and ethnographic data collected during an eight months fieldwork for my PhD project in the mangroves of Ecuador in 2019/2020 and guided by the ‘Sociology of Knowledge Approach to Discourse’(SKAD) (Keller 2001, Keller 2005, Keller 2011, Keller 2011) I will discuss A) the “El Dorado”of catching wild shrimps in the 1990s. When cutting red mangrove for commercial use was prohibited many former treecutter started catching larvae for the shrimp farms. I will outline the effects of the sudden cash influx into the mangrove communities. B) The significant loss of mangrove forest put Ecuador in the 1990s in the center of the international conservation and development discourse. I will describe main events and connect them to the effects of the scientific concepts of “poverty” and “development”. I finally C) like to discuss the forms of adaptions mangrove stakeholder have developed to the con-sequences of shrimp production.
Current trends in sustainable fish feed development
by Sofia Afoncheva, Hilke Alberts-Hubatsch and Andreas Kunzmann
Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) | ZMT
Demands for aquaculture production will continue to increase in the next years. In order to be sustainable and able to provide enough fish to consumers, aquaculture industry needs innovative changes in fish feeds. Traditionally, the main components of fish feed are fish meal and oil. In the last years, inclusion of these ingredients reduced significantly due to use of protein and oils from non-capture fisheries sources. Among the most common alternatives to fish components in fish feed are oil seeds, microalgae, insects, agricultural by-products or single cell protein obtained from protein-rich microorganisms. Larval nutrition presents additional challenges on the way of new feed formulations. Specific nutritional demands, size and behavioural requirements of fish larvae have to be met when developing a new larval diet. The nutritional value of food is one of the key parameters for approving new diets. In our project we focus on culturing copepods of high nutritional quality as live feed for fishlarvae in aquaculture. Nutritional quality of live feed is determined primarily by its fatty acid (FA) composition, the amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and pigments. Copepod nauplii are rich in PUFA and fulfil the requirements of larval organisms better than traditional aquaculture live feed – rotifers and Artemia. The cyclopoid copepod Apocyclops panamensis has high potential as live feed for fish larvae due to it robustness, small nauplii size, short life cycle and relatively high reproduction rate. At the moment Apocyclops is being provided mostly for ornamental fishes and is used as feed only in some Asian aquaculture. Our current research aims to optimize the nutritional value of copepods, by manip-ulating its biochemical composition through microalgae diets with different FA profiles.This presentation will give an overview about the current challenges to find sustainable protein and PUFA alternatives for fish feed.
Triggering antioxidative potential of sea grapes (Caulerpa lentillifera) using different light irradiances
by Lara Elisabeth Stuthmann, Karin Springer & Andreas Kunzmann
ZMT | University of Bremen | ZMT
Sea grapes (Caulerpa lentillifera) are edible, nutritious green macroalgae. The algae arecultured in tidal-ponds, mainly in Vietnam and the Philippines. Sea grapes are of high economic value, due to their special caviar-like texture and numerous health benefits. Additionally, the culture is cost-efficient and sustainable. This makes sea grapes a good-candidate to cover the increasing demand of seaweeds worldwide. The artificial modification of culture parameters provides the opportunity to trigger the production off avorable secondary metabolites, such as antioxidants. Under lightstress, algae may form harmful reactive oxygen species (ROS) and as a protective response, antioxidative com-pounds can be produced, which neutralize the ROS through their own oxidation. These antioxidative compounds (vitamins, polyphenols) do also have positive effects as part ofhuman diets. This presentation introduces the attempt to trigger the antioxidative potential of sea grapes by using different light irradiances and also considers the application of light as a post-harvest treatment.
Effects of extreme ambient cold stress in European seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax at different salinities: Growth, hematological, antioxidants, and immune responses
by Md Jakiul Islam, Matthew James Slater and Andreas Kunzmann
Leibniz Centre for Tropical MarineResearch (ZMT), 28359 Bremen, Germany | Alfred-Wegener-Institute, Helmholtz-Center for Polar andMarine Research, 27570 Bremerhaven, Germany | Leibniz Centre for Tropical Marine Research (ZMT),28359 Bremen, Germany
Climate change-driven extreme weather events are expected to challenge ectotherms’ physiological tolerance. The hemato-physiological modulation potentials of fish during extreme ambient cold events at different salinities are poorly studied. In this study we evaluated the growth, hemato-physiological, antioxidants, and immunological response of European seabass, Dicentrarchus labrax acclimatized at 30, 12, 6, and 3 PSU followed by an extreme ambient cold (8 oC) exposure for 20 days. Juvenile fish acclimatized at 30 and 3 PSU showed significantly low growth performances (p<0.05). Red blood cells (RBC), hematocrit, hemoglobin, cortisol, and serum protein content were decreased. Besides, phagocytic respiratory burst (RB) and serum lysozyme activities (LSZ) were significantly higher during extreme cold exposure. None of the repeatedly evaluated parameters indicated acclimation capacity to cope with tested salinities during cold exposure. However, taken together, our results indicate that Dicentrarchus labrax acclimatized at intermediary salinities (6 and 12 PSU) can perform comparatively better during extreme ambient cold exposure (8 oC).
Poster
Innovative aquaculture for the poor to adjust to environmental change in coastal Bangladesh? Barriers and Options for Progress
by Samiya Ahmed Selim and Marion Glaser
WG Social-ecological Systems Analysis | WG Social-ecological Systems Analysis
More so than wealthier, less nature-dependent social groups, the poor in tropical coastal regions suffer from adverse environmental change and need new income options. With high levels of salinity intrusion into coastal lands, innovative brackish water aquaculture (BWA) including Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) is a crucial adaptation option to ongoing massive environmental change in coastal Bangladesh. This paper examines how poor Bangladeshi coastal residents view BWA, and what is needed to make BWA a viable and sustainable livelihood. In four salinity-affected sites, we used a semi-structured questionnaire to interview 120 households. We find both information and perception biases that obstruct those in need from engaging with innovative BWA. Coastal residents’ views on aquaculture related mainly to previous experiences with monoculture shrimp farming, and its polarizing socio-economic effects, while knowledge on ecosystem-based aquaculture was scarce.This paper identifies barriers to the participation of poor and marginal coastal populations in innovative ecosystem-based brackish water aquaculture (BWA) using a set of indicative early field research results. We also outline some first steps to initiate a co-development of an innovative, ecosystem-based approach to aquaculture in the brackish and marine areas of Bangladesh (integrated multi-trophic aquaculture; IMTA). As salinity advances into coastal lands in these areas, millions of farmers and rural labourers are losing agriculture as their main income source. We propose strategic fields of of action to develop innovative BWA that benefits coastal Bangladesh’s poorest communities.