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Marine aquaculture holds great promise for meeting increasing demand for healthy protein that is sustainably produced, but reaching necessary production levels will be challenging. The ecosystem approach to aquaculture is a framework for sustainable aquaculture development that prioritizes multiple-stakeholder participation and spatial planning. These types of approaches have been increasingly used to help guide sustainable, persistent, and equitable aquaculture planning, but most countries have difficulties in setting or meeting longer-term development goals. Scenario analysis (SA) for future planning uses similar approaches and can complement holistic methods, such as the ecosystem approach to aquaculture framework, by providing a temporal analogue to the spatially robust design. Here we define the SA approach to planning in aquaculture, outline how SA can benefit aquaculture planning, and review how this tool is already being used. We track the use of planning tools in the 20 International Council for the Exploration of the Sea member nations, with particular attention given to Norway’s development goals to 2050. We conclude that employing a combination of an ecosystem framework with scenario analyses may help identify the scale of development aquaculture goals over time, aid in evaluating the feasibility of the desired outcomes, and highlight potential social-ecological conflicts and trade-offs that may otherwise be overlooked., 2,277

Long-term trends in seafood production and demand indicate a need to move away from capture fisheries in favour of increased aquaculture production. The paper explores the potential social and economic barriers towards creating a more holistic seafood production chain. Fisheries not only provide food but also play a significant role in the provision of cultural ecosystem services. Diversification to a similar maritime activity is therefore a potential solution to help preserve this culturally significant activity as well as sustaining food provision and income. However, there are potential social and economic barriers that need to be understood to allow this integration of sectors to happen. This study uses the Q-methodology to investigate the integration or diversification into aquaculture in the English inshore fleet. The results indicate distinctive viewpoints of fishers on aquaculture and the barriers to integration. There were two emergent viewpoints that were positive to diversification into aquaculture and two viewpoints that were against integration. The findings suggest that there is room for policy makers to encourage diversification using measures such as providing guidance documents or training in winter downtime to help fishers to get technical knowledge on aquaculture. Moreover, aquaculture out-reach programmes, addressing public perceptions and aquaculture design consultations, run by NGO’s or funded by government, may also provide an outlet for this group to learn more and help address the wants and interests of this group. To ease uncertainty for fishers, pilot projects demonstrating the potential co-location of aquaculture and fisheries, may another way to overcome the reluctance of some fishers to diversify into aquaculture.

The potential for the UK inshore fleet to either switch from wild capture fisheries to aquaculture or integrate it within its business model as a livelihood option was investigated. The aim was to assess the opportunities, barriers and potential for developing a more holistic seafood production system and to generate information for future policies and programs. A review of the current situation of the inshore fleet reveals recent economic hardships, decreasing employment opportunities, displacement and reduction in size of fishing grounds as a result of management measures including the creation of marine protected areas (MPAs). A subsequent literature review of fishers either switching from wild capture fisheries to aquaculture or integrating it into their business model indicates that there is a complex mixture of barriers including regulatory, social and economic factors that hinder fishers’ uptake of aquaculture. However, assessment of current integration examples of aquaculture and wild-capture sectors within the UK revealed many instances where fishers have successfully added aquaculture to their business portfolio. Results show that to meet increased demand, a supportive policy environment needs to be created along with clarification and simplification of the processes for acquiring space including clear guidelines of which types of aquaculture can be practised where, and clarification of the rules for aquaculture in and around MPAs. Areas of further work are suggested including assessment of cultural issues surrounding switching or integration and the provision of funding to test potential approaches. It is concluded that government regulatory policies along with social acceptance will play a crucial role in creating a more holistic seafood production system and for marine aquaculture to fulfil its potential via integration with capture fisheries.

Fisheries and aquaculture production, imports, exports and equitability of distribution determine the supply of aquatic food to people. Aquatic food security is achieved when a food supply is sufficient, safe, sustainable, shockproof and sound: sufficient, to meet needs and preferences of people; safe, to provide nutritional benefit while posing minimal health risks; sustainable, to provide food now and for future generations; shock-proof, to provide resilience to shocks in production systems and supply chains; and sound, to meet legal and ethical standards for welfare of animals, people and environment. Here, we present an integrated assessment of these elements of the aquatic food system in the United Kingdom, a system linked to dynamic global networks of producers, processors and markets. Our assessment addresses sufficiency of supply from aquaculture, fisheries and trade; safety of supply given biological, chemical and radiation hazards; social, economic and environmental sustainability of production systems and supply chains; system resilience to social, economic and environmental shocks; welfare of fish, people and environment; and the authenticity of food. Conventionally, these aspects of the food system are not assessed collectively, so information supporting our assessment is widely dispersed. Our assessment reveals trade-offs and challenges in the food system that are easily overlooked in sectoral analyses of fisheries, aquaculture, health, medicine, human and fish welfare, safety and environment. We highlight potential benefits of an integrated, systematic and ongoing process to assess security of the aquatic food system and to predict impacts of social, economic and environmental change on food supply and demand.

Haematopoietic necrosis virus [cyprinid herpesvirus 2 (CyHV-2)] was isolated during disease outbreaks in goldfish, Carassius auratus, at an ornamental fish retail site in southern England in 2004. Signs of disease included lethargy and inappetence and were first seen after water temperatures increased from 14-15 to 19-21 degrees C. External gross pathology included pale patches on the gills and skin and internally the spleen was enlarged, often with distinctive white nodules. The most prominent histopathological changes observed were necrotic lesions in the spleen and kidney and focal patches of necrosis in the gill lamellae. Necrotic cells often contained nuclei with marginated chromatin and pale intranuclear inclusions. Ultrastructural examination of the spleen tissue revealed typical herpesvirus-like particles measuring 100 nm in diameter. The virus was isolated from extracts of gill tissue in KF-1 cells at 20 degrees C and oligonucleotide primer sets were designed based on conserved gene sequences and used to amplify viral DNA by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The PCR assays were then used to detect the virus in DNA extracted from tissues sampled during earlier disease investigations at the retail site owner's holding facility in 2002 and 2003 and stored at -70 degrees C since then. Polymerase gene-specific PCR amplification products obtained from tissue samples and from the virus isolated in cell culture shared 100% nucleotide sequence identity with the published sequence for CyHV-2.

Carp (Cyprinus carpio L.,) positive for koi herpesvirus (KHV) antibodies are widely distributed across England and Wales in fisheries (Taylor, Dixon, Jeffery, Peeler, Denham & Way 2010). The majority of carp farms, however, remain negative. Although being antibody positive for KHV does not mean that waters still harbour the virus, it is a good indicator of prior exposure, and based on the current understanding of KHV and other herpesviruses, it seems likely that antibody-positive fish can become latent carriers of the virus (Gray, Williams, Jordan & Griffin 1999; St-Hilaire, Beevers, Way, Le Deuff, Martin & Joiner 2005 &; Thompson, Khoo, Wise & Hanson 2005 Field, Biswas & Mohammad 2006; Yuasa, Kawana, Ito, Sano & Iida 2007; St-Hilaire, Beevers, Joiner, Hedrick & Way 2009; Uchii, Matsui, Iida & Kawabata 2009). Because of the low proportion of infected farms in England and Wales, there may be prospects to control the disease, but to do so an understanding of the way in which the disease has spread is required (Taylor et al. 2010). Of the sites experiencing clinical outbreaks of KHV in England and Wales between 2003 and 2006, 66% had received a consented movement of carp from another site in the 2 years prior to the outbreak (Taylor et al. 2010). These introductions were thought to be the most likely route of introduction of the virus, although the disease status of the supplying sites remains unknown. The remaining cases were attributed to unrecorded movements or the stocking of imported ornamental carp. Taylor et al. (2010) also identified 30 antibody-positive sites (excluding sites known to hold fish vaccinated against KHV); however, the route of introduction to these sites remains unknown, and it is not known whether these sites have further spread the virus to other sites. This study therefore aimed at assessing the role of consented live fish movements in the spread of KHV antibody-positive fish. Using the live fish movements database (LFMD) held by the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and Environment Agency (EA), a contact matrix was developed that included the 30 antibody-positive sites identified by Taylor et al. (2010) and any sites that they had supplied carp to, or received carp from, in the 5 years prior to testing. This was used to determine the proportion of positive sites for which a recorded fish movement was a possible source and to determine what proportion of sites supplied by a positive site tested positive. Permission to take blood samples to be analysed for KHV antibody by ELISA was requested for each contact site. Where permission was granted, fish were captured by EA netting or electric fishing teams in 2008. Blood samples were taken by a Cefas fish health inspector and returned to the Weymouth laboratory to be analysed by the ELISA method described in Taylor et al. (2010). As for Taylor et al. (2010), a target sample size of 30 fish was sought; however, the mean sample size obtained was 19 (SD = 11), which provides an 86% chance of detection if the Journal of Fish Diseases 2010, 33, 1005–1007 doi:10.1111/j.1365-2761.2010.01198.x

Koi herpesvirus (KHV) causes a highly virulent disease affecting carp, Cyprinus carpio L., and poses a serious socio-economic threat to the UK carp industry. This study aimed to determine the geographic distribution and prevalence of KHV exposed fish in England and Wales through ELISA antibody testing. Only three of the 82 farms sampled produced positive results, suggesting fish farms provide a relatively safe source of fish. Of the 71 ‘high-risk’ fisheries tested, 26 were positive. All eight geographic areas within England and Wales studied had at least one KHV positive site. Twelve consignments of imported koi carp from seven S.E. Asian countries were tested for KHV antibody. Six consignments from six different countries were positive. Although a high proportion of consignments were positive, the results indicate that lower risk stocks of fish exist that could be sourced by the ornamental carp sector. The study provides evidence that KHV is widespread and prevalent in ‘high-risk’ fisheries. There are, however, prospects for controlling KHV as English and Welsh farms appear to be relatively free of the virus, and in most cases fish are not moved from fisheries to other waters.