Aquaculture

This position paper adresses the level-playing field for the aquaculture market. The aquaculture sector must be profitable to be able to make the investments neeeded to operate while profitability is only possible if the products are competitive with imports from third countries. 

On June 5th, 2018, the European Commission asked the AAC to provide advice on measures to be taken to best undertake the recovery of European eels (Anguilla anguilla) due to the critical situation of its stock.
This document details the views of the AAC on this matter. With this advice, the AAC expects the European Commission to take effective management measures to improve the situation of the eel stock for the sake of the natural environment, of stakeholders and of society in general.

This joint advice presents the views of the Aquaculture Advisory Council and the Market Advisory Council on Tetrodotoxin (TTX), a potent neurotoxin that is found in the organs of a variety of marine species and some terrestrial species; it is responsible for the highest fatality rate of all marine intoxications. 

Veterinary vaccines play a major role in protecting animal health by preventing and controlling serious epizootic diseases and by preventing animal-to-human transmission of infectious diseases. The availability of vaccines for farmed aquatic animals, as well as other veterinary medicinal products, is extremely low.

The Aquaculture Advisory Council values the contributions of its United Kingdom Members to the work of the Council and to the European Union aquaculture sector.

The AAC encourages that these Members, as well as other United Kingdom organisations can continue contributing as active observers[1] to the development of a sustainable aquaculture sector through a constructive and continuous dialogue in the future post-Brexit.

[1] AAC Rules of Procedure (Article 10-3): “The AAC shall not be responsible for meeting the costs of attendance of observers. Observers shall not be entitled to vote.”

Executive summary

As global aquaculture grows, and exceeds the production output of fisheries, ensuring the welfare of fishes at slaughter is paramount. In the European Union (EU), legislation protects fishes at slaughter based on a general principle of avoiding suffering. However, the European Commission have stated that a thorough assessment of farmed fish slaughter will be conducted, with a view to introducing more specific rules to the slaughter regulation to protect fishes.

EU aquaculture production is extremely diverse as regards species and production systems, and this diversification is rapidly increasing. This may require, assured the premises to pursue an adequate state of welfare and health for the animals, more attention to: simplification, flexibility, risk analysis and assessment of cost benefits of the measures implemented.

The recommendations below result from the synthesis of works from Fish Working Group and Shellfish Working Group of AAC.