Biotech Can Help Save World’s Aquaculture from Climate Change

Aquaculture’s contribution to the global supply of fisheries products has grown from 4 percent in 1970 to over 50 percent today. However, that capability faces constraints, and aquaculture’s productivity may not be sustainable due to extreme weather situations like the current El Niño weather phenomenon in the Philippines. While genetic engineering applications to aquaculture research is at its incipient stage worldwide, the technology has great promise in helping the sector mitigate the adverse impacts of climate change, and sustain its contribution to world’s fish supply. This is according to Dr. Eric Hallerman, a professor at the Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. He discussed how biotechnology could contribute to climate change resiliency of aquaculture and fisheries during a webinar via Zoom organized by the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotech Applications, Inc. (ISAAA Inc.) on March 31.

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