Neil Auchterlonie's column was published in International Aquafeed Magazine

The meeting held in Rome in November underlined the importance of fisheries and aquaculture in providing aquatic food for the future growing human population.

"This month I am writing the column whilst attending the FAO's International Symposium on Fisheries Sustainability in Rome. The focus of the symposium is "Strengthening the Science-Policy Nexus" and it runs over four days at the FAO Headquarters building. With over 700 delegates form around the world, there are many involved directly with fisheries industry, policy, management, and science in attendance. The format for the event has been a series of keynote presentations leading a panel discussion and a Q&A session with the audience.     

A common theme underpinning all the presentations and the discussions has been reference to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and particularly SDG14, Life Below Water. Understandably the aims of the SDGs are highly visible with the FAO, but it is interesting to see how much they are being woven increasingly into government strategies and scientific objectives. I know that many of the marine ingredient producers and the aquafeed companies are also aligning their work to the SDGs, recognising their importance to business sustainability.

The major message coming from the event relates to the importance of fisheries and aquaculture in providing aquatic food for the future growing human population. As we all know working in the industry aquatic protein is the most efficient to produce, and this can be done with relative reductions in greenhouse gas emissions in a way that can support the mitigation of climate change impacts. This is an immensely important message in this time when we are being inundated with media reports of the effects of global temperature rise, and the imperative to maintain that increase as low as may be possible. That link between producing more food from aquatic systems, and relative decreases in climate change impact risk is strengthening over time, but there were other secondary and important messages also coming through in the event. These related to the importance of fisheries in providing jobs, income, and thus poverty eradication, as well as the importance of micronutrients in seafood. The latter topic was fascinating, and relates to much of what we know in IFFO about the micronutrient content of fishmeal and the reasons why it is such a good feed ingredient. In the context of human nutrition it appears that the richness in micronutrient supply via fish consumption, whether long chain omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins or minerals, all improve the bioavailability of micronutrients in vegetable-source foods, so they have an additional effect that goes beyond their own nutritional content.

Although aquaculture is increasingly being recognised as important in relation to food security, there are also more references to non-fed aquaculture as important, with fed aquaculture apparently not being afforded the same emphasis. It seems that this is result of some negative perceptions about fish feed development and ingredient supply, not least the production of fishmeal and fish oil which even in this forum is often misunderstood. There is much to be done in ensuring that the public message about the importance of fed aquaculture is heard around the world, otherwise the industry may lose out on what is a fantastic opportunity for future growth."

Dr Neil Auchterlonie, IFFO Technical Director