Set nets (trammel nets and gillnets) vary in selectivity due to their several gear characteristics, thus they are used to catch a variety of commercially valuable species by vessels of the Portuguese coastal and small-scale (SSF) multi-gear fleets. The variability in the selectivity of set nets often results in impacts, both on benthic populations and their habitats, primarily catching corals, sponges and kelps. Previous studies focused on attaching a “greca” or guarding net to the bottom of trammel nets and while there was a decrease in non-commercial by-catch, there was often also a decrease in the catch rates of commercial species, causing this modification to be poorly received and ultimately not adopted by the local commercial fishing communities. In this study, a modification was applied to both trammel nets and gillnets which raises the set nets off the bottom through a system of ropes (‘aranha’, according to the local fishers) in either a vertical pattern or diagonal, depending on the preference of the local fishers that were chosen to assist with the experimental trials. Specifically, the modification was tested in the cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) trammel net fishery in the south of Portugal and the hake (Merluccius merluccius) gillnet fishery in the northwest of Portugal, with a preference to fish near rocky bottom area, where by-catch of invertebrates, including sensitive habitat-forming species is high. The results showed a reduction in the by-catch of corals and sponges in the modified nets, with no significant impact on the commercial capture of the target species in the hake fisheries of the northwest. However, while there was a reduction in by-catch of the habitat-forming species in the south, there was also a reduction in catch rates of the commercial species, including the main target species, the cuttlefish. During both experiments, a video analysis was conducted in order to account for all individuals of the habitat-forming species caught in high volumes that were overlooked during real time data collection onboard due to regular hauling procedures by commercial fishers. After the experimental trials were completed, net damage assessments were carried out which showed that in the rockier areas of the northwest, the damage in the standard nets was three times greater than that in the modified nets. However, in the softer sediment of kelp beds in the south, the damage was similar and minimal. The financial impact of the use of the modified nets compared to the standard net will be discussed as well as how quantifying the number of habitat-forming species as individuals is difficult to assess, and finally the future of the ongoing project and how the modification is applicable for the sustainability in other fisheries on a global scale.

How to cite: Szynaka, M. J., Pires da Rocha, P., Leitão, P., Gonçalves, J. M. S., and Campos, A.: Technology for Sustainable Fishing in Set Nets : A Simple Modification , One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-42, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-42, 2025.

Each year, an estimated 2 to 3 trillion aquatic animals are captured and killed for human consumption, a figure that surpasses the total number of farmed land animals by approximately 35 times. Despite this vast scale, animal welfare considerations in capture fisheries remain largely unaddressed in legal frameworks. This abstract presents findings from Aquatic Life Institute's third edition report, "Marine Capture Fisheries: Best Practices for Aquatic Animal Welfare" which highlights progressive practices aimed at enhancing the welfare of aquatic animals during capture and processing.

The report showcases innovative techniques employed by fishing vessels, companies, and research institutions that prioritize humane treatment of marine life. Notable practices include the use of 'Moon Pools' for safer line setting and hauling, in-water electrical stunning devices to minimize stress during capture, and the implementation of bycatch reduction devices to decrease unintended catch. These methods not only improve animal welfare but also enhance product quality and sustainability.

The adoption of such humane practices is crucial for the sustainability and equitability of ocean-based food systems. By reducing stress and injury to target species, these methods contribute to better flesh quality and longer shelf life, thereby supporting economic viability for fisheries. Furthermore, minimizing bycatch and habitat disruption aligns with broader environmental conservation goals.

This presentation will delve into specific case studies from the report, examining the effectiveness of these humane practices and their impact on both animal welfare and fishery sustainability. It will also discuss the need for policy regulations to mandate the adoption of such practices, ensuring the protection of aquatic animals and the promotion of ethical standards in the fishing industry.

By integrating humane practices into marine capture fisheries, we can advance towards more sustainable and equitable ocean-based food systems, aligning with global efforts to protect marine ecosystems and promote responsible consumption.

How to cite: Xu, C. and Malerbi, G.: Advancing Humane Practices in Marine Capture Fisheries: A Pathway to Sustainable and Equitable Ocean-Based Food Systems, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-120, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-120, 2025.

Tropical tuna is a significant global commercial commodity, particularly in the Indian Ocean, where Indonesia ranks as the second largest producer. These resources not only support export markets but also contribute to food security in Indonesia. The development of tuna fisheries is closely linked to the use of fish aggregating devices (FADs), which enhance fishing effectiveness and efficiency. However, the use of FADs can also have negative impacts on the environment and resource sustainability. There are two types of FADs: drifting and anchored. Indonesia exclusively employs anchored FADs, which provide a theoretically manageable system due to their known locations. However, information regarding the number and density of Indonesian FADs is still limited. To address this gap, a structured interview approach was used. Indonesia's tuna fishery heavily relies on FADs, predominantly utilized by small-scale fishermen who operate a diverse fleet with various gear types and target species. FADs are privately owned by captains, vessel owners, companies, and fishing associations, complicating management efforts. While the number of FADs deployed by individual Indonesian vessels or groups is fewer than those of other IOTC region vessels, a direct comparison of magnitude is challenging due to the significantly larger number of vessels in the region. Additionally, Indonesian AFADs generally have a longer lifespan, reducing the risk of loss and subsequent marine debris. Interestingly, the number of FADs visited was not correlated with the duration of the fishing trip, indicating that vessels exploit specific FAD arrays and the same fishing areas all along the trip. The minimal awareness of supporting data among fishing stakeholders necessitates the combination of multiple data sources to provide a clearer picture of the information gaps for effective management. Furthermore, both the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) and the Government of Indonesia have issued several regulations regarding FADs, but implementation has been inadequate, underscoring the need for a community-based approach. These findings unveil the key importance of FADs for Indonesian artisanal and semi-industrial fishermen. Despite the complexity of the fishery, the quantitative metrics of FAD exploitation that emerge constitute the building blocks for better evaluating the impacts of FADs and developing management actions aiming at promoting their sustainable use.

How to cite: Hargiyatno, I. T., Capello, M., Wudianto, W., and Dagorn, L.: Towards the sustainability of small-scale anchored FAD fisheries in Indonesia, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-183, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-183, 2025.

The capacity of Pacific fisheries and mariculture to persist in the climate change context is uncertain and will depend on the ability of stakeholders to implement adaptation and resilience-building interventions that mitigate the negative impact of increased temperature. In the Tuamotu Archipelago, French Polynesia, an important population of giant clams Tridacna maxima inhabits Reao’s lagoon and provide islanders a significant income through fishing for the food market and mariculture for the aquarium trade. These activities, however, have already shown signs of vulnerability to Marine Heat Waves (MHW), which raises concern about their sustainability in face of climate change. Spatial and non-spatial management strategies have been implemented in this lagoon, but their relevance in the long term is questioned as they generate inequity issues between farmers and fishers. To help managers implementing new regulations that promote resistance and resilience of these activities to climate change, we followed an inter-disciplinary approach to (1) characterize the vulnerability (exposure and sensibility) of giant clams to temperature increase, (2) assess the potential for compliance and adaptation of fishers and farmers to new regulation measures, and (3) model the giant clam food system under various climatic and socially acceptable management scenarios. The scientific knowledge acquired from this work opens new opportunities for developing tools useful to enhance resistance and resilience of Pacific fisheries and mariculture activities to MHW. This includes: a validated remote-sensing-tool to map sea surface temperature inside atoll lagoons and identify refuge areas; the emergence of a new prototype of mariculture device that reduce the risk of giant clam bleaching by reducing light stress during MHW; and a management strategy evaluation identifying the most promising regulations among candidate scenarios that maximise resistance and resilience of the fishery-and-mariculture system to MHW.  

How to cite: Van Wynsberge, S. and the GAIA-project team members: Promoting sustainability of giant clam fishing and mariculture in atoll lagoons exposed to marine heat waves, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-273, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-273, 2025.

How to cite: Carvajal-Soriano, K. and Ibarra-Castro, L.: Innovative compact hatchery: Enhancing fish production and sustainability in limited spaces, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-377, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-377, 2025.

Amidst the challenges of rising global food demand and climate change, Low-Trophic Aquaculture (LTA) emerges as a sustainable and climate-conscious approach to food production. The AquaVitae project, funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 program, explored production processes of innovative low-trophic species (LTS) across the Atlantic Ocean. Focusing on safety, environmental resilience, sustainability and circular practices the project examined selected species of macroalgae, sea cucumbers, abalone, oysters, mussels, and sea urchins. These organisms utilizing nutrients and energy from lower levels in the food chain and producing lower environmental impacts.

AquaVitae’s research spanned across different aquaculture environments, from open-sea to land-based systems, advancing hatchery technologies, seedling techniques and grow out to optimize yields across various LTS value chains.

Early-stages production processes were developed and improved to promote aquaculture production of LTS such as oysters, abalone and sea cucumbers.

Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) systems were also investigated, showcasing the benefits of co-culturing of macroalgae with abalone, mussels, fish or shrimps to recycle nutrients, improve water quality, while ensuring biosecure feed sources for grow out. By-product utilization was also demonstrated through the integration of mussel meal and fish protein hydrolysates in aquafeeds enhancing the nutritional quality of LTS while reducing reliance on traditional fish meal, exemplifying a successful model of recycling aquaculture outputs back into production.

The project’s innovation framework leveraged a circular economy approach in aquaculture by transforming barren sea urchins into nutritious food product and waste by-products, such as shellfish calcium carbonate, into usable materials. Studies highlighted the high protein and omega-3s content of LTA products emphasizing their nutritional benefits. Additionally, the study of the ecosystem services flow from LTA revealed such production can enhance ecosystems services such as nutrient cycling across a range of environments, consequently addressing pressing sustainability goals in low carbon food production.

By addressing these innovative strategies, AquaVitae has demonstrated that LTA not only meets the demands for sustainable food production but also fosters resilience within marine ecosystems, as such aligning with EU environmental policies.

This presentation will share Aquavitae’s enhanced production processes, integrated approaches, key findings, as well as insights and policies recommendations promoting the development of safe, nutritious, and low-impact aquaculture foods globally that meet the needs of a growing population while supporting ocean ecosystem resilience.

How to cite: Courtois de Viçose, G. and the Pernille Nielsen2; Colin Hannon3; Sylvain Huchette4; Isabel Sousa Pinto5; Gonzalo.S. Marinho5; Urd Grandorf6; Clifford Jones7; Dirk Weich8; Björn Suckow9; Matthew Slater9; Felipe Vieira10; Sofia Engrola11; Xosé. A. Alvarez-Salgado12, Luis Taboaba Antelo12: Low-Trophic Aquaculture Food: Innovations, Challenges, and Pathways towards Sustainable Food Systems, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-495, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-495, 2025.

Despite the increasingly successful implementation of stock management under the EU Common Fisheries Policy, managing fisheries in a sustainable, integrated, and coordinated way remains a challenge. In helping to explain the persistent challenge of achieving sustainable outcomes in EU fisheries, we contend that a central reason is an issue of ineffective governance. Improved governance, appropriately designed for Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM), is key to improving the system performance towards the societal objectives. We understand governance as a social process involving the interaction of governments, regional authorities, private industry, and civil society that collectively work towards steering the sector towards sustainability. This encompasses politics, policies, laws, norms, values, regulations, and institutions that guide the management and conservation of fishery resources. Meanwhile, fisheries management involves specific actions and strategies used to manage and conserve fishery resources, including implementing the rules and regulations set forth by fisheries governance and applying scientific principles to ensure sustainability of fish stocks. Historically, fisheries management has focused on the ‘thing’ being managed: fish. Such a focus has resulted in various technical and managerial outputs such as quotas, TACs, catch limits, gear sizes, MPAs, inter alia. Various institutions have also developed (e.g. Advisory Councils) alongside public policy measures such as the Common Fisheries Policy. While progress has been made in recent years, managing fisheries in a sustainable, integrated, and coordinated fashion remains a challenge. The question therefore is: what are the requirements for EU fisheries governance (and hence, management) to be effective? Trying to understand what makes fisheries management more effective (i.e. sustainable), requires us to ask questions about fisheries governance: to what extent are all relevant actors included in decision-making, able to speak to one another, coordinate activities, and work together to resolve key fisheries-related challenges? And what is the capability of actors to observe, define, and understand problems? To answer these questions, we developed and deployed an expert elicitation survey, informed by key governance dimensions and frameworks (the Aquaculture Governance Indicators and the Canadian Fisheries Research Network framework), sent to 245 respondents across selected regional seas (North Sea; Western Waters; Baltic; and Mediterranean) as part of the SEAwise project. In this presentation, we showcase results and analysis from this survey and reflect on how a human-centered governance approach can inform fisheries management, identify ‘weak spots’ that need attention to improve/make fisheries management more effective and address challenges. We argue achieving sustainable outcomes in Europe’s fisheries been a persistent challenge partly because of insufficient focus on the other dimension of fisheries management: people.

How to cite: Asif, F., Hegland, T. J., Frangoudes, K., and Kraan, M.: From managing fish to managing people: requirements for effective fisheries governance and management in Europe, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-525, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-525, 2025.

Aquaculture is one of the main levers for feeding the world of tomorrow, but the activity is affected by the global warming and the increase in ocean temperatures, which affect the oxygen level into water, a key parameter for the fish health and fish appetite (Remen 2016) and directly affect the operations in the sea, mainly on fish feeding management.

In this context, management support through live environmental data is no longer sufficient, and the need for prediction tools becomes essential to adjust daily decisions, in particular feeding actions. State of the art in the salmon industry shows that in summer up to 21% of the feed can be given during suboptimal period, when up to 70% of the operating costs are concentrated in feed expenditure, and which is heavily dependent on wild fisheries that are already stressed.

Changing the practices in the daily operation is a key challenge to improve sea farm sustainability, and by extension, production performance.

BiOceanOr's predictive tools, based on AI and machine learning from local and external data collection, allow the farmer to better adjust the feeding window, and strongly contribute to reducing the suboptimal feeding time, by maximising the amount of feed given in the best period for fish appetite, despite a high intra-day oxygen fluctuation.

These predictive digital tools help the farmer to avoid feed losses to the sea, increasing the sustainability of the activity and improving both (i) farmer savings by improving eFCR, (ii) maximising the fish growth by increasing SGR, leading to a reduction in time fish spend at sea. These AI powered tools provide a good overview of how technological innovation can support aquaculture and marine sustainability while keeping economic performance as a goal.

How to cite: L'Heveder, P., Amraoui, S., Soto, C., Tré-Hardy, A., Paris, M., and Dupont, C.: Improving aquaculture sea farm sustainabilty and efficiency through ai technology to help farmers management operation, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-561, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-561, 2025.

One of the challenges in making fish farming more environmentally sustainable is to replace fishmeal and/or plant ingredients with alternative ingredients. Fish protein hydrolysates (FPH) have the potential to meet the nutritional needs of cultivated species. Moderate inclusion of FPH in aquaculture feeds improves fish growth and feed conversion ratio due to their content of amino acids and bioactive peptides. In Galicia (Northwest Spain), there is substantial acces to a large volume of raw materials for the development of new ingredients from FPH. For instance, extractive fishing is a very important sector from which many discards are obtained. A promising opportunity is to utilize FPH from fishing discards (blue whiting, Micromesistius poutassou), as a new ingredient for turbot feed, which will help promote a circular economy initiative, thereby revaluing these materials and fostering more efficient and sustainable aquaculture.

The objective of this study is to evaluate various levels of inclusion of a FPH of low molecular weight (1-2 kDa) of blue whiting from fishing discards in a diet for turbot in the growth phase, in which fishmeal will be replaced by the FPH at inclusion levels of 5, 10 and 15%. Thus, juvenile turbots (Scophthalmus maximus) were obtained from a local hatchery (Insuíña S.L., Oia, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain) and transported to the facilities of the Oceanographic Center of Vigo. Experimental turbots (12.8 ± 0.09 g) were distributed into 12 tanks of 100 L (n = 60 fish/tank). They were kept under natural photoperiod and a constant temperature of 16ºC. After an acclimation period (two weeks), the feeding trial began and lasted for 3 months. Fish were fed ad libitum twice a day (9 am and 4 pm) up to a maximum of 3% daily. Four different diets were used and tested in triplicate: i) Control (BL0), ii) 5% inclusion (BL5) iii) 10% inclusion (BL10) and iv) 15% inclusion (BL15) of FPH of Blue whiting Low molecular weight 1-2 kDa (LB). The following zootechnical parameters were evaluated: daily feed intake, initial and final weight and total length, and liver weight. From these data, specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion ratio (FCR), condition factor, and hepatosomatic index (HSI) were calculated. Additionally, at the end of the trial, muscle samples (n = 6 fish/diet) were taken to evaluate their proximal composition. Faeces were also collected to determine the yttrium content to obtain the apparent digestibility coefficient (ADC).

Based on the results obtained so far, it appears that the inclusion of LB FPH offers comparable results to the control feed regardless of the inclusion level (5%, 10%, or 15%). Further studies would be required to evaluate the overall response of the fish to this FPH to establish them as ingredients for aquaculture feeds. This would help to revalue products that were previously discarded and enhance aquaculture sustainability.

How to cite: Comesaña, S., Bermúdez, R., Rotllant, J., Vázquez, J. A., Soengas, J. L., and Pérez, M.: New feed formulations for turbot: sustainability of discards, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-594, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-594, 2025.

In a world subject to the multiple consequences of global change, fishing will continue to play a key role in the global food system, provided that we fundamentally rethink the sustainability of marine fisheries. Today, in all major fisheries-related international agreements and organizations, ending overfishing and managing fish populations so that they produce maximum sustainable yield (MSY) is recognized as the standard for sustainable fishing. However, this approach does not explicitly take into account the interactions between species, especially the role played by the targeted species in the functioning and resilience of the marine ecosystems, the impacts on habitat or on sensitive species, and the effects of the rapidly changing environment. The widespread adoption of this productivist vision of maximizing long-term catches of targeted species has led to very significant impacts on all exploited marine populations (i.e. almost all fish species as well as large mollusks and crustaceans), reducing their abundance to one third of their historical levels. This is clearly not sustainable at the ecosystem scale.

This obsolete vision is the source of a major erosion of marine biodiversity and proves incapable of continually adapting to the rapid effects of global change. Here, we propose a new vision termed ‘pesco-ecology’ that is akin to agroecology of the sea. This new vision extends and renews the ecosystem approach to fisheries advocated since 1995 by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) (and in reality, little implemented). It is based on two key principles. The first is to constantly seek the minimization of all ecological impacts linked to each unit of fish caught, while actively adapting to the effects of global change. This principle relies on mobilizing all the available scientific knowledge, innovation processes, regulatory instruments and the intelligence of the actors, to reduce to a minimum the fishing impacts on the exploited resources, on other species, on habitats, and more generally on the structure, functioning and resilience of the underlying ecosystem.

The second principle consists of constantly seeking to maximize the economic, social and societal utility of each unit of fish caught. It is Nature that produces, not fishing companies. We must therefore maximize the economic wealth, jobs, social, societal or cultural benefits that can be created from this natural production, and we must benefit the greatest number of people. Fishing must not only produce food; it must contribute to territorial planning and the well-being of coastal communities.

Using a selection of some case studies, the presentation will show how these general principles and more generally pesco-ecology can be applied. In particular, we will show the benefits that could be expected from: the redefinition of more precautionary management standards to set fishing quotas; the massive increase in mesh sizes and minimum landing sizes; the progressive phasing-out of trawl fisheries in favor of passive gear; spatial management reserving coastal areas for small-scale fisheries; and the development of fleet-based management using incentive sharing of fishing quotas to promote good environmental and social practices.

How to cite: Gascuel, D., Levrel, H., and Roberts, C.: Rethinking fisheries sustainability toward pesco-ecology, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-788, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-788, 2025.

Introduction: One of the main challenge for the sustainable development of marine aquaculture is to determine the appropriate level of production that respects the ecological carrying capacity of the receptor ecosystems. Most environmental thresholds associated to aquaculture waste have been defined for temperate ecosystems but very few studies have quantified impact thresholds in tropical environments. 

Materials and Methods: In this study, we combined observational and modeling approaches to quantify the environmental impact of fish farming waste. A sampling campaign was carried out at a coastal marine fish farm located, in a shallow semi-enclosed embayment of Le Robert (Martinique). Particle traps were deployed to quantify the sedimentation rate (total and particulate organic matter) at different distances from fish cages (0, 25, 50 and 150 m) along two transects. Grab samples were taken to analyze the structure of macrofaunal benthic communities, supplemented by sediment cores to analyze sediment physico-chemical characteristics (% organic matter, sediment grain size). Isotopic signatures of each compartment (feed pellets, particulate organic matter in particle traps and sediment) were analyzed to trace the extent of fish farming waste dispersion. Current flow measurements and zootechnical data were also collected to predict solid farming waste with a farm waste dispersion model (MOCAA’pp).

Results: The environmental impact of farming waste seems to be limited to the close to fish cages (0-25 m). Significantly higher sedimentation rates of particulate organic matter were measured at 0 m sites on each transect compared to other stations (> 1.2 kg m^-2 yr ^-1), due to low current speed (3 cm s^-1 in average) and shallow depth under cages. Stable isotopes analysis in particle traps and sediment (d15N/d13C) also showed a low dispersion of farming waste, with an isotopic signature at stations 0 m closer to that of the fish farm. In the sediment, a significant reduction in species richness, abundance and diversity was observed between 0-25 m. From 25m upwards, the presence of sensitive species was observed leading to an improvement of the ecological status (M-AMBI index).The environmental variables that significantly explained the structure of benthic communities were the sedimentation rate of particulate organic matter and the sediment grain size. Ongoing analyses are in progress to confront field observations with modeling outputs using the farm waste dispersion model (MOCAA’pp).

How to cite: Grouazel, M., Fiandrino, A., Geoffoy, T., Nahon, S., Falguière, J.-C., Desroy, N., and Callier, M.: Response of the benthic ecosystem to fish farming waste in a tropical environment: observational and modeling approaches. , One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-872, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-872, 2025.

Mollusks rank among the most diverse and abundant animal groups, both in terms of number of species and biomass. Marine mollusks, in particular, are a crucial component of the global food supply, significantly supporting aquaculture industries around the world. Due to socio-economic importance of these species, there is a great interest in studying mollusc immunity to mitigate the impact of infectious diseases that recurrently plague their productions. Recent discoveries on the adaptive abilities of the innate immune system to learn from past experiences, have spurred considerable interest in mollusk immunity. In bivalves, compelling evidence for the existence of innate immunological memory capacities (also called immune priming or training) came from studies on the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas, the most widely cultivated mollusk species globally.

In this species, affected by recurrent mass mortalities notably caused by the herpes-like virus OsHV-1 µVar or vibrioses, we evidenced the potential to induce increased survival towards these pathogens in priming the immune system using either a viral mimic or inactivated natural pathogens but also following the early shaping of the immune system by microbiota-associated microorganisms. We showed that the exposure of oyster to the viral mimic called poly (I:C) or inactivated OsHV-1µVar can lead to long-term efficient protection by triggering a strong antiviral response preventing replication of the virus. We also demonstrated that early life microbial exposure could play a role in educating and training the immune system, durably enhancing oyster survival against OsHV-1 or Vibrio challenges. This beneficial effect was found to be maintained throughout the oyster’s lifespan and can even be passed on to subsequent generations.  The memorization of this early microbial experience was associated with epigenetic remodeling and a reprogramming of immune gene expression.

Overall, these findings reveal the remarkable ability of oysters to build an innate immune memory and adapt to their microbial environment. This knowledge opens up promising avenues for exploring novel strategies through immune training or microbial education to help mitigate disease risks in marine bivalves.

How to cite: Montagnani, C., Cosseau, C., Labreuche, Y., Toulza, E., Petton, B., Dégremont, L., and Morga, B.: Novel Strategies for Mitigating Disease Risks in Marine Bivalves: Immune Training and Microbial Education, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-983, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-983, 2025.

Fisheries and aquaculture provide food for billions of people playing a key role in global food security. However, fish stocks and marine ecosystems are under stress from climate change, illegal fishing, overfishing and pollution. Sustainably managing fish stocks and ensuring government support to fisheries don’t compromise the health of resources is fundamental to the social, economic, and environmental performance of global fisheries and its resilience, notably climate change.

The upcoming edition of the OECD Review of Fisheries (to be launched early 2025), monitors the sector’s performance and sustainability and explores how smarter public policies can reinforce fisheries’ role in global food security and the ocean economy. It covers 41 countries, which together accounted for 87% of global aquaculture and 69% of global fishing production over 2020-22.

Key elements from the report that could contribute to session T7-1 include:

• Recent trends in production, trade, employment and fleet and the outlook for the next decade
• Facts on the status of fish stocks, based on the collection of individual stock assessment data, since 2019, and the computation of country-level stock health and productivity indicators.
• The policy landscape for capture fisheries at the country-level:
  • A review of the management tools governments use to regulate their most valuable fisheries
  • A review of the policies governments use to support their capture fisheries sector
  • A discussion of how better management and support policies could help ensure the sustainability of the resource base while maximising benefits for societies, and minimising environmental detrimental impact.
• Climate change presents major challenges for global capture fisheries, and its impacts will need to be factored in sustainable fisheries management both at domestic and multilateral levels and will create adaptation challenges that fisheries support policies may also need to address.

Some key messages from the report:

• Fish production volume is growing and is anticipated to continue growing through aquaculture production, with a continued concentration of production in Asia.
• The structure of the sector is evolving, with less jobs in capture fisheries in many countries, and an increasing share of total value generated by aquaculture.
• Data suggests that fisheries management works: among assessed fish stocks, the share of healthy stocks was higher than the share of healthy stocks as estimated by the FAO for all stocks. Variation at the country level is significant, both in terms of stock health and the extent of knowledge thereof.
• More could be done to harvest healthy stocks optimally: a large number of healthy stocks do not meet productivity targets aimed at maximising the catch or value of landings, highlighting the potential of improved fisheries management to optimise food production or fisher incomes and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Significant proportion of policies aimed at supporting capture fisheries presents a risk of encouraging unsustainable fishing in absence of effective management. There is scope to re-allocate government spending to more effectively.

How to cite: Rivera, L., Delpeuch, C., and Symes, W.: Key highlights from the OECD Review of Fisheries 2025 on fisheries and aquaculture production and management in the OECD and beyond, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-1127, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-1127, 2025.

Migratory species and straddling populations, including highly mobile fish, elasmobranchs, sea turtles, seabirds, and marine mammals, are increasingly impacted by overexploitation, fisheries bycatch, habitat degradation, and climate change. Conserving these species and sustainably managing fisheries and other human activities present one of the most complex challenges in contemporaneous multilateral governance. Effective conservation and management efforts require harmonizing data collection, sustainable harvesting practices, monitoring, control, and enforcement across numerous jurisdictions, including the high seas. However, inconsistent and fragmented data collection and knowledge production remains a significant barrier. To address this, scaling and mainstreaming innovative approaches and technologies in management, monitoring, and data collection is essential for building the foundational knowledge required for sustainable and equitable operations, particularly under the pressures of a changing climate.

This study conducts an expert-driven global solution scan of scientific and technical innovations across fisheries and regions, highlighting best practices to inform estimates about the status, abundance, and distribution of marine migratory species. It also assesses measures to understand the scope and scale of fisheries impacting them, from local artisanal to industrial operations. Scientific and technical knowledge is categorized into four key themes: species abundance and distribution, fleet activity, fisheries catch composition and traceability, and climate change adaptation. Technological advancements such as vessel tracking and monitoring hardware, innovative stock assessment methodologies, and novel genomics applications are instrumental in tracking population abundances and the scale of our impacts on them. Breakthroughs in computer modeling, artificial intelligence, and satellite remote sensing offer invaluable tools to inform, monitor, and enforce management decisions on a large scale. Species distribution and density modeling are also a fundamental tool for tracking current and predicting future range shifts of species under environmental changes. To ensure scalability, cost efficiency, institutional arrangements, and capacity development are considered, especially given resource and training limitations in many regions. 

A critical element in advancing the scientific foundation for the conservation and management of migratory biodiversity is the emphasis on independent, well-funded science. Independent research ensures the transparency and integrity of data collection and analysis, which are crucial for informed and unbiased decision-making. Independence in research also provides a foundation of trust and reliability, which supports the credibility and adoption of conservation strategies across stakeholders. To this end, we also identify examples of independent regional scientific bodies informing managers and outline examples of principles to guide the transparent, accessible, and interoperable production of actionable data and knowledge.

Consistent and sufficient funding is essential to support long-term monitoring and stimulate the development of advanced technologies, particularly in regions that may lack the resources to independently invest in these areas. Together, these innovations provide a roadmap for strengthening and scaling the science available to local, national, and regional fisheries frameworks to inform adaptive, science-based methods that address the complex dynamics of migratory biodiversity. While improved scientific knowledge cannot guarantee successful conservation outcomes on its own, it lays the groundwork for evidence-based, scalable approaches to managing migratory and straddling species effectively across geopolitical boundaries.

How to cite: Ortuño Crespo, G., Cheung, W., Cronin, M., and Shillinger, G.: Scientific and technical innovations to revolutionize knowledge production for the conservation and management of migratory and straddling biodiversity, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-1154, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-1154, 2025.

As the global demand for sustainable food sources rises, aquaculture has emerged as a critical solution to meet that need. It is becoming a cornerstone of global food security and economic opportunity. It provides a sustainable alternative to overexploited marine resources, particularly seaweed production systems, which are increasingly vital in ensuring resilient and sustainable coastal communities. South Korea is one of the major seaweed producing nations globally. This study investigated the status, policies and practices related to seaweed cultivation in South Korea. Between 2013 and 2023, the industry saw significant growth, from 1.13 million tons to 1.74 million tons, with the main cultivation species, including Pyropia spp., Saccharina japonica, and Undaria pinnatifida. These species constitute 97% of the total production and the industry was valued at 855.8 billion KRW ($658 million USD) in 2023. Pyropia spp. alone achieved export revenues of 1 trillion KRW ($770 million USD), underscoring the sector's growing export market globally. The country holds 2,150 seaweed farming licenses covering 90,571 hectares in 2023 and has expansion plans for 2024, adding new licenses to 2,700 hectares for Pyropia spp. aquaculture. Domestic seaweed consumption is also rising, increasing from 17.4 kg/capita in 2013 to 25.6 kg/capita in 2022. Around 16 seaweed farms and six processing companies earned Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certifications in 2024 and sustainability remains a priority, enhancing global trust in Korea’s products and a commitment to the blue economy agenda. The government's Aquaculture Disaster Insurance (ADI) program, is unique to South Korea and supports the industry by offering protection against natural disasters and diseases, fostering stability, and enabling productivity improvements. Additionally, advanced satellite technology, such as the Geostationary Ocean Colour Imager (GOCI), has also helped the growth of the industry through monitoring for oceanic risks, such as macroalgal blooms of floating brown algae Sargassum horneri, which can impede seaweed production. Further efforts by the seaweed industry to enhance sustainability, includes thereplacement of traditional plastic buoys with eco-friendly alternatives. Research into advancing alternative cultivation practices (e.g., on-shore cultivation) in response to increasing seawater temperatures that may hamper seaweed cultivation in the marine environment in the future, are also on-going thus safeguarding the long-term success of South Korea’s seaweed industry.

How to cite: Ryu, J. Y., Nagabhatla, N., Cottier-Cook, E., Kim, G. H., and Kim, J.-H.: Boosting Resilience in South Korea's Seaweed Industry: Status, Policies and Practice, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-1267, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-1267, 2025.

For over two centuries, trawling fisheries have operated blindly; catches could not be known until onboard. These activities, which represents over half of seafood protein supply and of fishermen incomes, worldwide, are facing increasing societal pressure for their impacts on the ecosystem and their greenhouse gas emissions. Yet as of today, no alternative exists to maintain the same levels of production while reducing the impacts on the species welfare and ecosystems. We here demonstrate that previously blind trawling activities can now be turned into informed fishing, by developing a trawl system that can automatically detect and exclude bycatch species in real-time, using artificial intelligence (AI). The Game of Trawls system was achieved by coupling acoustic communication, actuators, embedded computer vision and AI trained to recognize both targeted species and unwanted species to release, in real-time. Full size trials were conducted in lab and are now being tested at sea to demonstrate the proof of concept that trawls catch can be monitored and exclusion devices triggered autonomously without human interaction. Several limits remain, in particular with the robustness of species detection by the AI, but these applied technological developments illustrate how wisely operated AI applications may help reaching a sustainable exploitation of marine resources and improving welfare of unwanted catches, offering a new step towards precision fishing. 

How to cite: Faillettaz, R., Belmouhcine, A., Chappe, O., Ferret, G., Le Bourbonnec, P., Marie, B., Tullio, A., and Simon, J.: Game of Trawls: towards fully automated intelligent gears to eliminate bycatch in trawl fisheries, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-193, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-193, 2025.

How to cite: Dapueto, G., Scotto, B. M., Buck, B. H., Maar, M., Aguera Garcia, A., She, J., Thomsen, M., Dankel, D., Bassett, D., Jacobsen, A., Bruhn, A., Martin, G., Loddengaard, T. S., Bergh, Ø., and Novellino, A.: Integrating offshore wind and low-trophic aquaculture for multi-use in the North and Baltic Seas, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-146, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-146, 2025.

The  EU Regulation 2023/2842 has recognized in its preamble and Article 14 the importance of requiring reporting of catches for all fishing vessels regardless of their size! In that way, compliance and control will be improved.

It is therefore considered necessary for masters of even artisanal fishing vessels to record data concerning catches in a digitalized way and submit them by electronic means, in particular the fishing logbooks and landing declarations.

To facilitate catch recording and reporting, particularly for masters of vessels of less than 12 metres, an outdoor and shore-based, kiosk-style device as a part of a wider Landing Declaration System (LDS) has recently been developed. It is to provide for fishermen-friendly but accurate landings weighing and wireless data reporting to the national fisheries information systems.

The system provides for secure fisherman registration, digital catch weighing and catch data reporting, and generates and dispenses ice into fish crates to preserve the catch during its later logistics paths. The national fleet of tens or hundreds of Landing Declaration Kiosks (LDK) is technically monitored and predictively maintained from a centralized MS Azure Cloud to improve the resilience of operations. A solar-powered, battery-backed energy management design for use in areas with unreliable power grids further improves the system's robustness.

The LDS with its LDK represent a future-oriented direct-to-fisherman management tool that fisheries management science and authorities have long been waiting for.    

How to cite: Mastnak, Z.: The BlueTraker LDS - an efficient technology for small-scale fisheries landings reporting in the light of an (EU) Regulation 2023/2842, One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-368, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-368, 2025.

Fishing in the open ocean is a dangerous job with the safety of fishing crews often being overlooked as fishing crews are pressured to increase production. Safe and healthy crews are essential to the sustainability of ocean-based food systems particular marine capture fisheries. The labor aspect of fishery sustainability is often overlooked in conversation about fisheries management. In 2007, the International Labor Organisation adopted the Work in Fishing Convention (No. 188)  to requires states to regulate minimum requirements for work on board fishing vessels, transparent conditions of service, adequate accommodation and food, occupational safety and health protection, and basic medical care and social security. This treaty is in force but only has 22 ratifications out of nearly 150 coastal States. This presentation will explore why the ILO Work in Fishing Convention has struggled to receive support and what additional legal innovations may be needed to address concerns of  inhumane treatment of fishing crews with a particularly look at recent efforts by the Philippines to implement a "Magna Carta" for seafarers designed to protect labor rights.  Other innovative approaches to protect  fishing workers including potential trade restrictions on fish products from flag States with evidence of unregulated poor labor practices (modeled off the EU Deforestation Regulations) will also be discussed.

How to cite: Telesetsky, A.: Protection of Fishers at Sea: Legal Efforts to Protect Fishing Crews  , One Ocean Science Congress 2025, Nice, France, 3–6 Jun 2025, OOS2025-1556, https://doi.org/10.5194/oos2025-1556, 2025.