Skip to main content

REVIEW article

Front. Aquac.
Sec. Society, Value Chains, Governance and Development
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/faquc.2024.1428497
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

Finding the Right Spot: Laws Governing the Siting of Aquaculture Activities

Provisionally accepted
Till Markus Till Markus *
  • Department of Environmental and Planning Law, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (HZ), Leipzig, Lower Saxony, Germany

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

    Marine aquaculture has grown enormously in recent decades, and with it the competition for space suitable for aquaculture. These developments have limited the areas available for aquaculture and, in some cases, have become a barrier to expansion. In response, aquaculture operations have moved further away from the coast. This development has created a need for clearer and more robust approaches to more comprehensively describe and secure sites for aquaculture. This article reviews the law governing the siting of aquaculture operations. In particular, it assesses the role of the widely used term 'offshore' in the Law of the Sea to see if there are any legal aspects that need to be considered in moving towards the use of more specific concepts. It also aims to inform scientific discussions and political and administrative processes on the law governing the identification, description, and siting of aquaculture operations. This will hopefully contribute to more sustainable and less conflicted longterm aquaculture development.

    Keywords: Aquaculture management, spatial planning, aquaculture law, Aquaculture governance, Siting

    Received: 06 May 2024; Accepted: 07 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Markus. 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: Till Markus, Department of Environmental and Planning Law, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (HZ), Leipzig, 04318, Lower Saxony, Germany

    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.