Open AccessUnderstanding the role of socioeconomic and governance conditions in country-level marine aquaculture production
Author(s) -
Elizabeth O. Ruff,
Rebecca R. Gentry,
Sarah E. Lester
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
environmental research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.37
H-Index - 124
ISSN - 1748-9326
DOI - 10.1088/1748-9326/abb908
Subject(s) - mariculture , aquaculture , agriculture , fishery , production (economics) , socioeconomic status , geography , business , natural resource economics , ecology , biology , fish <actinopterygii> , economics , population , demography , macroeconomics , sociology
Marine aquaculture (i.e. seafood farming in the ocean) has the potential to substantially support growing demand for animal protein. Despite vast amounts of suitable ocean space across the world, marine aquaculture development has been slow and geographically heterogeneous, indicating that factors other than suitable farming conditions are influencing industry growth. Using multivariate techniques, this study explores to what extent certain socioeconomic, governance, and biophysical factors can explain country-level patterns of mariculture production. We find that socioeconomic conditions are a significant contributor to whether a country produces mariculture and the magnitude of its production; our models explain up to 33% more of the variation in mariculture production compared to models including only biophysical parameters. These results are relatively consistent across types of mariculture production (i.e. finfish, crustaceans, molluscs, and algae). Our findings suggest that improving seafood farming infrastructure, creating local demand for seafood, and facilitating knowledge transfer from land-based and freshwater aquaculture could help countries develop stronger mariculture industries.