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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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Over the past two decades, researchers at the Institute for the Environment (hereafter, the Institute) at Brunel University have generated substantive evidence supporting the case for regulation of discharges of pharmaceuticals into rivers and estuaries throughout Europe and for improved sewage treatment, with significant implications for water quality, aquatic life and public confidence. Their research has led to improved sewage treatment in some countries and to changes in the European Water Framework Directive (WFD; the primary legislation for protecting and conserving European water bodies), such that regulatory limits for environmental concentrations of the contraceptive pill hormones, ethinylestradiol and oestradiol, are now included in River Basin Management Plans for 2015. In 2011, a Queen's Anniversary Trust Prize was awarded to Brunel University in recognition of the Institute's considerable success in translating this research into European policy, also influencing countries outside Europe.
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.
Application of Bangor's DNA forensic research has had major impacts on the management and control of illegal wildlife trade. After initial work providing evidence for criminal prosecutions with wider deterrent effects on wildlife crime, Bangor-led research went on to apply these techniques to trace fish (products) to their source populations to ban illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing practices. Since 2009, this work has improved stock management by the UK government and European Commission, directly affected the Common Fisheries Policy reform and has been implemented by the Marine Stewardship Council as a verification tool for correct labelling of products.