Oral Presentation Australian Society of Fish Biology and Oceania Chondrichthyan Society Conference 2016

Transitioning to a brave new world: the need for, and challenge of, interdisciplinary research. (#134)

Stewart Frusher 1 , Marcus Haward 1 , Alistair Hobday 2
  1. University of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS, Australia
  2. CSIRO, Hobart, Tasmania

The world rapidly needs to respond to global challenges such as food security, population growth and climate change amongst an ever increasing rate of globalisation that is also reshaping trade and markets.

The world’s oceans cover 71% of the earth’s surface and, like many of the terrestrial deserts, are underutilised for food production. However, unlike deserts, virtually all regions of the oceans support commercial fisheries from krill and toothfish in Polar Regions to tunas in tropical regions. Modern commercial fisheries are still based around a “hunter-gather” genre whereas agriculture replaced the “hunter-gather” sector thousands of years ago. The equivalent change is commencing in marine production systems where aquaculture has been the fastest growing production system globally over the last three decades. However, marine aquaculture is largely contained within the coastal zone – a region coming under increased stress through population growth, recreational use and concerns for the conservation of biodiversity. This coastal zone represents only 8% of the earth’s surface.

A brave new world will see the development of offshore marine production systems and these are likely to be multi-sector (e.g. food production, conservation, energy production, tourism). In Australia, a country with the third largest marine jurisdiction globally, this journey is still in its conceptual phase although interest is increasing. At the global scale there is increasing interest in the oceans and given the rapid pace of technological change, development needs to be controlled so that sufficient research can underpin the development of policy if we do not want to repeat some of the disasters associated with the green revolution. Such research will require strong inter- and trans-disciplinary teams and greater global cooperation.