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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.
Koi Herpes Virus is a notifiable disease in the UK which can cause serious economic losses in coarse and ornamental carp. It is a viral disease which is highly contagious and can cause 100% mortality in infected fish. In 2010, the Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) made a policy decision, based on our mathematical modelling and computational work, that they would not attempt to eradicate the disease because it would not be cost effective. They used the model predictions to carry out an economic analysis which took into account the cost of the predicted number of outbreaks and the cost of surveillance. They concluded that the benefit of an eradication programme, over a time period of 20 years, would range between a net cost of £213m and a net benefit of £8.36m with their best estimate being a net cost of £5.48m (Section 5, reference 1, paragraph 1.6).
In July 2011, a fish disease simulator developed in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Liverpool was installed on computers at the Centre for Environment, Fisheries & Aquaculture Science (Cefas), an executive agency of the UK government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
Since this date, the simulator has significantly improved the capability available to Cefas for understanding the likely spread of infectious diseases in the aquaculture industry of England and Wales, and enabled the optimisation of methods for the prevention and control of outbreaks. Specifically, a user-friendly interface enables Cefas to focus on particular diseases of concern, understand their specific pattern of spread and optimise methods for their control. The simulator is currently being used to develop contingency planning for outbreaks.
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.
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).
This research programme has provided convincing evidence that fish perceive pain and has been instrumental in directly informing changes to experimental protocols and influencing welfare guidelines.
We use fish in a variety of ways — for food, farming, experimentation, as public exhibits, in recreational angling and as pets. Many of the procedures that fish are subjected to cause tissue damage that would give rise to the sensation of pain in mammals. This research programme uses techniques in neurobiology, physiology and animal behaviour to discover how the fish are affected by these procedures. This has not only improved the welfare of fish, but also influenced how the public views these animals through media dissemination.
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.
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.