Working Group on Ecological Carrying Capacity in Aquaculture (WGECCA)

Management of aquaculture activities using ecological carrying capacity (ECC) is in accordance with an Ecological Approach to Aquaculture (EAA) as defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). There are several ways in which EAA has been defined, calculated, and implemented across geographies. Existing methodologies and management schemes were reviewed for ICES areas. The review confirmed that ECC is not uniformly implemented. Many regions are not yet prepared to execute an ECC approach and are still in the data gathering phase to understand production at the farm level. Often implementation of ECC is limited due to existing policy and governance structures of that region. No information was found explaining if and how ECC might change with implementation of integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) revealing many data gaps. A brief comment is included in this report on these data gaps. In addition, two manuscripts have been drafted for publication and seeing these products through to publication and distribution is WGECCA’s priority for next steps.