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Existing Barriers Current extent Recognition of the contribution that MB can make to the competitiveness and productivity of the sector Attractiveness of the sector compared to the land biomass sector ++ barriers evolving with successful measures ++ + ↓ barriers evolving in absence of measures ++ ++ +++strong, ++medium, +small, ↓suppressing barriers Aquaculture Aquaculture is an important and growing global food production sector. Indeed it has been identified as the fastest growing form of food production in the world. With stabilisation of catches from wild capture fisheries, aquaculture has increased in importance with supply expanding by over ten times in the last 30 years. Within Europe, marine aquaculture has also increased in volume and value over the past 30 years with increases in production of ‘traditional’ cultured species such as mussels and oysters and the development of aquaculture for new species including Atlantic salmon, sea bream and sea bass. The European sector is now dominated by Atlantic salmon production but mussels, oysters and seabass and seabream also make significant contributions. Advances in the sector have increased significantly in importance in terms of volume and value of production over this period such that European aquaculture production currently provides direct employment to around 65,000 people with an annual turnover of EUR 3 billion. The development of aquaculture, particularly that which is based on carnivorous finfish species, has led to the emergence of a number of issues associated with aquaculture including limited additional sites left for aquaculture activities, environmental impacts, disease and the effect of escaped animals and the reliance on wild fisheries for feed inputs. The critical challenge, and one that marine biotechnology has a role to play in, is to increase the efficiency of production while, at the same time, also reducing the impact of culture activities on the wider environment. Value chains specific to the aquaculture sector Figure 0.29 Marine biotechnology value chain for the aquaculture sector + ↓ The value chain concerning marine biotechnology in the aquaculture sector is mainly concerned with the research & discovery and development stages. After this the products (mainly seed, feed 146 Study in support of Impact Assessment work on Blue Biotechnology

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