Working towards Adaptive and Versatile Environmental Sustainability in mollusc aquaculture (WAVES)

Mollusc aquaculture produces 20 million tonnes (USD 29.8 billion) live biomass annually, supporting both marginal farming communities and export trade. Asia hosts >95% of activity with bivalves dominating production, primarily oysters, mussels, and benthic clams. These non-fed species offer a ‘low-carbon’ solution to high-quality nutritional security and confer environmental benefits for biodiversity and seawater nutrient status. Molluscs are inexpensive, nutritionally rich and sector expansion can enhance food security in Southeast Asia. Nevertheless, mollusc output as a proportion of aquatic animal aquaculture declined to 20.3% from 30.2% since 2000, with producers facing challenges from climate change and disease, concerns over algal toxins, food safety and reliable access to high-quality seed, and other societal, cultural and commercial pressures. Questions remain as to whether mollusc culture can develop and grow into a sustainable industry, in the face of bottlenecks to seed supply, changes in production and nutritional value resulting from climate change, and commercial pressures from other aquatic food producers. At grow out, diseases and climate impacts present major issues, with a more complete understanding of environmental tolerance of crop species necessary to map the suitability of existing and potential future farm locations. Meanwhile, hatchery technology offers promise for enhancing reliability of supply and providing a platform for future resilience by enabling initiatives such as selective breeding. The WAVES consortium aims to develop capacity in diversified mollusc aquaculture to create system resilience and to promote the sustainability and growth of this sector. To achieve our ambition, four key objectives have been co-developed that place engagement with farming communities and stakeholders at its heart: i) conduct systems mapping of current mollusc production in Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia (clams, mussels and oysters) as models of wider Asia to provide deep understanding for activities, livelihoods and climate change threats; ii) create a systems dynamic model and develop a scenario tool to forecast plausible futures for mollusc aquaculture; iii) generate data to support species diversification for climate resilience, to promote hatchery development for reliable supply of high-quality seed, and to produce safe and nutritious food; iv) iterate and disseminate findings to develop context-sensitive roadmaps for future sustainable expansion of resilient mollusc aquaculture. Our consortium entrains multinational expertise in bivalve aquaculture and physiology, with specialists in microbiology, nutrition, food safety, systems-thinking, climate forecasting, sustainable socioeconomic development, environmental justice and multilevel governance, to genuinely implement systems-scale understanding in forecasting plausible futures for mollusc aquaculture. Beneficiaries include coastal communities where operations are located and people whose livelihoods rely on mollusc farming that are threatened by climate change effects. Development and expansion of mollusc farming, through improved productivity and enhanced natural resource use, will contribute to regional food and nutritional security. Core to our vision is enhancing regional capability and capacity for systems approaches, which will be achieved through collaboration, training and mentorship. The WAVES Consortium seeks to enable the equitable transition of mollusc aquaculture to sustainable systems resilient to the challenges posed by climate change, ensuring optimised use of the natural environment, and with increased output enhancing local food security and nutritional benefit. The project will provide a contextually-relevant fulcrum to stimulate further investment and create a UK-Asia alliance of researchers leading developments in mollusc farming and contributing to UN SDGs 2, 3, 6, 8, 12, 13, 14 and 17.