Dear Colleagues,

Recently, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) called for a Blue Transformation (FAO, 2022) towards nutritious and sustainable aquatic food systems. To achieve this transformation, technical innovations and appropriate policies should go hand in hand to develop a more environmentally friendly, socially appropriate, nutritious, and healthy aquaculture food systems.

Various factors play a role, from better animals and more efficient rearing technology, to precise feeding, to more attention for biosecurity, environment, and governance. All this comes together in the choice of the production system used.

Aquatic food systems are currently characterized by a broad array of farmed organisms, environments and production systems. Some rely entirely on the natural foods produced in the environment (extractive systems, e.g., for seaweeds, bivalves, and carps), others are industrial with full control of the environmental parameters and feed inputs (such as recirculating aquaculture systems, RAS), and everything between these. Because of the growing concerns about the environmental burden of aquatic food systems, much attention has been given to the development of more ecological, nature-friendly, and community-based systems, such as integrated aquaculture systems (IMTA, IAA, Aquaponics), biofloc systems, and so on.

Aimed to share the knowledge needed for this Blue Transformation, Animals want to analyse the different aspects which can make future ecological aquaculture production systems more sustainable. In this context, we open this Special Issue and invite state-of-the-art papers on the following thematic areas:

• Optimizing carrying capacity in open systems such as coasts, lakes, and reservoirs;
• Identifying suitable areas for aquaculture operations; siting;
• Waste-based feed resources, such as insects, microbial biomass, and yeast;
• Species choices;
• Circular aquaculture value chain systems;
• Integrated systems (IMTA, IAA, Aquaponics, Biofloc) and their environmental impacts;
• The environmental impacts of RAS and other closed-containment aquaculture systems, as well technological breakthroughs to improve their sustainability;
• Restorative aquaculture and the preservation of natural habitats, efficient resource uses;
• Biosecurity risks and control and health management;
• Innovations using artificial intelligence technologies to improve animal welfare, health, and performance in aquaculture production systems;
• Innovative governance regimes.

Prof. Dr. Johan Verreth
Prof. Dr. Bendik Fyhn Terjesen
Prof. Dr. Barry A. Costa-Pierce
Guest Editors

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• sustainable aquaculture
• aquaculture production
• environmental impact
• biosecurity risks and control
• waste management