A British environmentalist has told the aquaculture industry it can't ignore the two major threats of climate change and increasing acidity in the ocean.
Jonathon Porritt says climate change could pose a real threat to many lives around the world. Photo: 123RF
Jonathon Porritt made the comments to the Aquaculture conference in Nelson last week.
Mr Porritt said the future was bright for industries around the world, but the dark cloud of climate change could not be ignored.
He has urged marine farmers and other stake holders in aquaculture to stay involved in the debate of climate change, because the threats could come sooner than expected.
"However brilliantly it is managed, and however sustainable it produces the product that the world demands, it cannot do anything on its own about the two massive threats to the future security of all ocean-based aquatic industries," he said.
"That's the threat of climate change and the potential impact of gradually warming temperatures all around the world, and it cannot do anything about ocean acidification.
"And just sometimes when I look at what the combined impact of warming waters, more extreme weather events and acidification throughout the world's ocean, that's a kind of meta threat that we have to think about because it might not be so far off as a real threat to the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of people around the world."
