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HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article

Front. Aquac.
Sec. Production Biology
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/faquc.2024.1384037
This article is part of the Research Topic Differentiating and defining ‘exposed’ and ‘offshore’ aquaculture and implications for aquaculture operation, management, costs, and policy View all 8 articles

The Social Science of Offshore Aquaculture: Uncertainties, challenges and solution-oriented governance needs

Provisionally accepted
Gesche Krause Gesche Krause 1Jenny Weitzman Jenny Weitzman 2Megan Rector Megan Rector 3,4Ramón Filgueira Ramón Filgueira 3,5*Sander Van Den Burg Sander Van Den Burg 6Dorothy J. Dankel Dorothy J. Dankel 7Marit S. OIsen Marit S. OIsen 8Tonje Osmundsen Tonje Osmundsen 8
  • 1 Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), Bremerhaven, Bremen, Germany
  • 2 Centre for Marine Applied Research, Dartmouth, Canada
  • 3 Marine Affairs Program, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
  • 4 Institute of Aquaculture, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Stirling, Stirling, Scotland, United Kingdom
  • 5 Norwegian Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Bergen, Hordaland, Norway
  • 6 Wageningen Economic Research, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, Netherlands
  • 7 SINTEF Ocean, Bergen, Norway
  • 8 NTNU Social Research, Trondheim, Sør-Trøndelag, Norway

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Aquaculture technology is on the move, enabling production in more open and exposed ocean environments around the world. These new systems offer solutions to environmental challenges facing conventional aquaculture, yet new technologies also create new social challenges while potentially exacerbating, or at minimum recreating, others. Offshore aquaculture research and governance are still in early stages, as is our understanding of the social repercussions and challenges associated with development. This paper provides an evaluation and reflection on offshore aquaculture from a social science perspective and is based on findings from a modified World Café group discussion method including the thoughts and experiences of social science experts. Key challenges and uncertainties including a lack of an appropriate regulatory framework, societal perceptions of offshore aquaculture, and offshore aquaculture's contribution to society were identified. The governance implications of these challenges are discussed as well as the need for social sciences to address these challenges through transformative and transdisciplinary approaches that bridge science and society.

    Keywords: governance, Inter-and transdisciplinarity, systems perspective, Social dimensions, Offshore aquaculture

    Received: 08 Feb 2024; Accepted: 12 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Krause, Weitzman, Rector, Filgueira, Van Den Burg, Dankel, OIsen and Osmundsen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Ramón Filgueira, Norwegian Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Bergen, 5817, Hordaland, Norway

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.