Sustainable Seafood: Barriers and Opportunities in the Fishing Industry

Understand the true environmental and social impact of fisheries and aquaculture

As we discover more about unsustainable and damaging fishing practices, it’s important to have an accurate understanding of the problem in order to take action.

On this three-week course, you’ll gain a nuanced understanding of the environmental and social problems of the fishing industry. Moving beyond just the impacts of fisheries, you’ll delve into fish farming and aquaculture to gain a comprehensive insight into different fishing industries.

With this knowledge, you’ll explore approaches and innovations to make these practices more sustainable.

Learn to define sustainable fisheries and seafood

Sustainable seafood is a complex topic, which is often hard to navigate as a consumer. You’ll learn to define what is meant by sustainable seafood and use this understanding to critique sustainable seafood products.

You’ll also explore how stakeholders and the growth of seafood demand affects the industry’s sustainability and the issues this causes for the oceans.

Dive into ocean science and the barriers to sustainable seafood

With an understanding of what sustainable seafood means, you’ll start to unpack the barriers faced by the industry. You’ll learn about wild-capture fisheries, quotas, and catch policy as you explore case studies related to unsustainable fishing.

Next, you’ll discover the challenges of fish farming and aquaculture, including welfare, species selection, and health.

Discover sustainable fishing solutions

Finally, you’ll unpack the opportunities for sustainable solutions such as improved fishing techniques and marine protected areas.

By the end of the course created by FoodUnfolded® in collaboration with EIT Food Education partners, you’ll have a solid understanding of the impacts of the fishing industry as well as the sustainable innovations to transform its practices.

This course is designed for anyone interested in learning more about the environmental and social impacts of the fishing industry.

Whether you want to become a conscious consumer, you’re a marine biology student, or you’re simply curious about fishing and the environment, this course will help you gain knowledge of sustainable seafood.

Please note that a video introduction of the course can be found here.

If you’re looking to expand your knowledge on this topic, you might also find of interest the following EIT Food courses on food system and sustainability:

• Circular Business Models for Sustainable Urban Food Systems
• Explore How Farmers Produce Food Sustainably
• Farm to Fork: Sustainable Food Production in a Changing Environment
• Innovation in Arable Farming: Technologies for Sustainable Farming Systems
• From Waste to Value: How to Tackle Food Waste

This course is designed for anyone interested in learning more about the environmental and social impacts of the fishing industry.

Whether you want to become a conscious consumer, you’re a marine biology student, or you’re simply curious about fishing and the environment, this course will help you gain knowledge of sustainable seafood.

Please note that a video introduction of the course can be found here.

If you’re looking to expand your knowledge on this topic, you might also find of interest the following EIT Food courses on food system and sustainability:

• Circular Business Models for Sustainable Urban Food Systems
• Explore How Farmers Produce Food Sustainably
• Farm to Fork: Sustainable Food Production in a Changing Environment
• Innovation in Arable Farming: Technologies for Sustainable Farming Systems
• From Waste to Value: How to Tackle Food Waste

• Identify the environmental impacts of fisheries, and fisheries management practices and innovations that make it more sustainable
• Explore the fish farming food chain and its environmental and socio-economic impacts
• Evaluate the benefits and limitations of varying aquaculture species on health and the environment
• Explore ocean science and marine technologies
• Identify or critique ‘sustainable’ seafood products as a consumer
• Apply your understanding to address the sustainability challenges of consuming living marine resources