Ireland’s Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, has launched a public consultation on a draft National Strategic Plan for Sustainable Aquaculture Development.
In Ireland, the plan is to increase Irish aquaculture production by 45,000 tonnes, across all species, by 2023.
Minister Coveney said: “Aquaculture is a rapidly growing industry internationally with very rapid expansion opportunities identified over the coming decades to meet the ever growing seafood demand arising from population growth and increased consumption in Asia.”
He added that while the targets in the new Irish plan are ambitious, in the context of the global expansion which the industry will experience over the next seven years, they are modest.
Internationally, aquaculture internationally produced 67 million tonnes of farmed fish in 2012 which is projected to increase to 85 million tonnes by 2022.
Actions proposed in the draft plan include the introduction of a set of ‘Guiding Principles for the Sustainable Development of Aquaculture’ with scale limits and phasing in relation to the development of individual offshore salmon farms.
Other initiatives include a review of the regulatory framework for aquaculture licensing and financial supports to build capacity, foster knowledge, innovation and technology transfer.
The reformed Common Fisheries Policy requires Member States to prepare multi annual national strategic plans to drive forward the sustainable development of aquaculture and Ireland’s draft plan has been prepared under its auspices.
Submissions on the draft plan and related environmental report and appropriate assessment are invited by 24 July 2015 to NSPA@agriculture.gov.ie
Documents are available for download at http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/customerservice/publicconsultations
