Sustainability in Fish and Seafood Production

Through an integrated and interdisciplinary approach, students will be challenged to analyse the sustainability of fish and seafood production.
We question ourselves: what do we define as sustainable?
From a managerial point of view, the conceptual dimensions of sustainability will be discussed.
In terms of ecology, students gain insight in different impact categories of fish on ecosystems.
The disciplines are brought together.

In general, this course aims to educate the student about the challenges of making our food systems more sustainable, develop their critical thinking about the topic of sustainability and raise awareness of the roles and attitudes they can play as scientists, citizens, consumers, or future stakeholders in the value chain.

• Explain the major environmental, social and economic challenges at different scales related to the sustainable development of fish aquaculture.

• Abstract the main characteristics of an aquaculture production system (environment, species, rearing technology and culture cycle), its inputs and outputs

• Explain the cause-effect chain of environmental impacts from aquaculture production systems and suggest mitigation solutions

• Illustrate circularity principles in aquaculture and understand the role of aquatic animals in a circular food system

• Apply business model innovation and strategies to investigate social justice and economic viability in aquaculture production systems, value chains and food systems

• Interpret the environmental, social and economic performances of aquaculture production systems at multiple scales/levels and identify potential tradeoffs among them

• Apply environmental, social and economic indicators of aquaculture production to provide recommendations related to the sustainable development of the aquaculture sector

• Performance (0%) In order to complete the course; all field Excursions and Tutorials are mandatory. An excursion report is part of the assignment 'case study report'
• Written test with open and closed questions (40%) Digital exam. Written test with closed and open essay questions.
• Assignment report (40%) Case study report. Peer feedback is used to fairly reflect individual contributions in the final grade for the case study. The individual grade may differ from the group average by a maximum of -1 to +1 point, with a minimum grade of 5,00.
• Assignment other (20%) Role-play. In order to complete the course, participation in the role-play is mandatory. Failure to attend can result in a partial grade below 5,50.

Preferred knowledge is APS20806 Systems Approach in Animal Sciences

• Brightspace site with course material.