Table 2.

Recent statements about marine aquaculture, food and nutrition security, and environmental sustainability.

Food and nutrition security
• Increased mariculture production could help ameliorate global malnutrition24.
• Mariculture offers a crucial supply of protein, and… can support nutritionally vulnerable communities1.
• [Offshore finfish aquaculture] operations could be sited in developing countries to increase food security through income generation or increased access to seafood9.

Environmental sustainability
• Part of the growing interest in offshore aquaculture is the potential for improved sustainability. By moving farther offshore into the less protected ocean environment, open-ocean farming has the potential to reduce some of the many negative impacts associated with more nearshore practices and even create positive impacts through greater resource efficiency use28.
• Offshore aquaculture is increasingly viewed as a mechanism to meet growing protein demand for seafood, while minimizing adverse consequences on the environment19.
• Offshore mariculture aquaculture could enable increased seafood production and economic development while alleviating pressure on coastal ecosystems and wild fisheries10.