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TOWARDS THE AQUACULTURE GOOD PRACTICES AND LIFE BELOW WATER (SDG 14): THE LONG-LINE OYSTER FARMING IN THE CENTRAL ADRIATIC SEA
Abstract
Aquaculture sector holds significant potential for ensuring food security, supporting economic growth, and contributing to the sustainable use of marine resources within the European Union (EU), aligning with the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 Life Below Water . However, the potential of aquaculture is constrained by multilevel challenges, including environmental externalities, regulatory complexities, and social acceptance. These challenges are exacerbated by underlying tensions between goals for growing the economy and the need to protect the ecosystems. The present paper undertakes a two-pronged analysis. Analysing the regulatory and administrative framework governing aquaculture, specifically the Strategic Guidelines for a more sustainable and competitive EU aquaculture for 2021-2030 and the European Ocean Pact, the present paper focuses on the strategies promoted by the European Union to ensure the conservation of marine biological resources and the management of fisheries. Moreover, employing an interdisciplinary approach, the study presents empirical data on the efficient recruitment of oysters in the Adriatic Sea, starting from cupped and flat oyster juveniles collected in the environment using different collecting devices (oyster valves, rough ribbons). Recruitment density (ribbon: 0.19-0.62 oysters/dm2; valves: 0.18-0.71 oysters/dm2) did not show notable differences by season time of collectors introduction (P>0.8932) and substrate (P>0.4687). Results demonstrate that oyster aquaculture can be developed according to a more sustainable approach, starting from oysters (Crassostrea gigas, Ostrea edulis) obtained in the same environment in which the growing is carried out. Through a legal analysis approach, supported by scientific evidence, this paper offers an understanding of the EU aquaculture sector and offers strategic recommendations for its sustainable and competitive development, in line with the SDG 14.
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