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Research led by Professor Charles Tyler at the University of Exeter has provided critical data on the widespread adverse oestrogenic effects of endocrine disrupting chemicals in wild fish populations in the UK. This has triggered the UK government to take action through investment in research and development of policies and guidelines. The research has led to world-wide recognition that endocrine disrupting chemicals are an emerging policy issue, a £40 million demonstration project with the UK government and water industry, and multi-million pound benefits to the UK in terms of improved water quality and safeguarding freshwater wildlife.
Disease severely limits the expansion of aquaculture. Studies on the immune control of infection have led, in association with industry, to the promotion of disease control utilising 03b2-glucan feed supplements. Knowledge has, via Keele Water, informed infection control strategies used by UK fish farmers. Studies have provided a legacy of young scientists trained by industry and supported by European funding. Advances made have been embraced in the education of veterinarians in Germany and fish production in Eastern Europe. Close collaboration with government bodies and learned societies has ensured that the work has been recognised by policy makers within the fisheries sector.
Omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) are essential nutrients and have many beneficial effects on human health. Fish are the major source of omega-3 LC-PUFA in the human diet, and its level was maintained in farmed fish through the use of fish oil as a major component of extruded aquafeeds. Around 10 years ago it became clear that demand for fish oil would rapidly outstrip supply, limiting expansion of aquaculture activities, if fish oil use was not reduced. The challenge this presented was that alternatives to fish oil lack omega-3 LC-PUFA. However, replacement of fish oil with more sustainable alternatives is now standard practice in the industry. Research into fish oil replacement and omega-3 metabolism in the Nutrition Group, Institute of Aquaculture has been at the forefront of the scientific research in the UK and Europe that has ensured nutritional quality of farmed fish by developing alternative feed ingredients and feeding strategies that have maintained levels of omega-3 LC-PUFA despite radical changes to feed composition driven by sustainability and food security. This work culminated with recent demonstrations that farmed salmon can be net producers of marine protein (2010) and oil (2011).
Between 1987 and 2011, the Fish group at Imperial College London assisted the Falkland Islands Government by providing fisheries management advice as well as delivering seasonal licencing and fee analyses which determined the number and type of fishing licences allocated to commercial vessels operating in Falkland waters. The work of the Fish group had unprecedented economic, commercial and environmental impacts on the Falkland Islands, where between 50% and 75% of the annual revenue required to fund all infrastructure, research and development in the Islands is generated by the £20M income from the sale of commercial fishing licences. In 2006, the Falkland Islands changed from a seasonal fishing licensing system to a rights-based management system of Individual Transferrable Quotas (ITQs) for fishing companies. The move to ITQs, which was recommended by the Fish Group, generated revenue of £9.5 million in 2010 and the system will remain in place until 2031. During a transition period between 2008 and 2011, the Fish Group supported the planned hand-over of licencing and fee responsibilities to the Falkland Island Fisheries Department which continues to use the bio-economic and stock assessment models developed by the Fish Group at Imperial for the sustainable management of marine resources.
Impact on society, culture and creativity: Public debate has been stimulated and informed by the UoE research demonstrating that fish feel pain.
Impact on policy, animal welfare, commerce and production: UK, EU and RSPCA Animal Welfare policies and guidelines have been informed by the research. Aquaculture has adopted welfare for fish with the use of humane slaughter methods adopted in many farms.
Beneficiaries: Millions of farmed fish in the EU (including at least 75,000 tonnes of salmon produced annually in Scotland); the aquaculture industry; fish used in research; animal welfare organisations and public awareness.
Significance and Reach: Public interest in the debate has been worldwide; the impact on animal welfare practices is clearly evidenced in the EU.
Attribution: The Principal Investigator was Victoria Braithwaite, Reader at School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh. Mike Gentle, Co-investigator, and Lynne Sneddon, PDRA, were at Roslin Institute, UoE.
Salmon maturation prior to harvest constitutes an environmental, welfare and production bottleneck for the salmon aquaculture industry. Our research has reduced the number of fish that mature during the grow-out phase so they do not reallocate energy to develop gonads and display secondary sexual characteristics that reduce yield, harvest quality and increase disease susceptibility that can result in downgrading at processing and lost profitability. In addition, reproductively competent fish that escape from on-growing cages may breed with wild stocks, leading to potential introgression. This has a major impact on public perception of farmed salmon and it limits the expansion of the industry. The IoA Reproduction team has undertaken a comprehensive body of work since 1993 to address this critical production bottleneck through an array of management strategies. This work culminated in the REF period by the demonstration that salmon puberty can be reduced to <3% by the use of standardised lighting regimes (2008) followed by the first commercial production of sterile salmon (2012-13).
Research at the University of Southampton into the behaviour of fish at dams has led to the improved design and positioning of screens to prevent economically important and endangered fish from being killed in turbines, as well as enabling them to pass barriers more successfully through improved fish passes. The research has informed practical changes to river infrastructure in the UK, Sweden, the USA, and China. It also led to development of methodologies for river restoration and planning which have aided the implementation of new conservation legislation, and quantification of the environmental impacts of beaver dams on fisheries.
Tilapia, an important farmed fish is of fundamental importance to the food security of poor people in less developed countries, and ensuring high quality juveniles are available locally is critical. Stirling's Sustainable Aquaculture group have been instrumental in developing a novel decentralised approach to sustainable tilapia farming which has now been piloted and scaled up in NW Bangladesh (NWB). This work has improved the availability of high quality seed and more efficient and productive food fish. This has led to seasonal income smoothing and elevated household nutrition among the targeted poorer households producing the juveniles, as well as reduced costs and use of agrochemicals in associated rice production. Landless people have also benefitted through trading fish in targeted areas and further afield.
DEPOMOD, and AutoDEPOMOD, are models, developed by Prof. Black's research team, which predict the impact of fish-farm discharges on the seabed in order to optimise the operation of aquaculture sites to match the environmental capacity. Since being adopted by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, AutoDEPOMOD now forms a compulsory stage in the aquaculture planning consent process in Scotland, and has been used in the development of all presently operational salmon sites in Scotland. DEPOMOD and AutoDEPOMOD software have 122 licences in 25 countries worldwide.
Bournemouth University (BU) research delivers the evidence base on which to develop regulations, policy and management programmes to protect European biodiversity from the adverse impacts of non-native fish. It reveals where introduced non-native species have damaging impacts and, as in the majority of cases, where there is little ecological consequence but substantial socio-economic benefits. The research has been applied to EU risk assessment and quarantine measures for the management of non-native species. It also provides the scientific base for the Environment Agency's eradication of Pseudorasbora parva, more commonly known as topmouth gudgeon, from UK freshwaters. This is protecting a fisheries industry worth over £3 billion per annum.