Like all human activities that have “natural environment expenses”, fishing and aquaculture have activities that impact on ecosystems. The sustainability of modes of exploitation of natural living resources is no longer the sole responsibility of these primary production activities, which are highly dependent on the quality of a natural environment that is strongly affected by numerous uses. Hence the need to define what is called a responsible activity combining production activity, minimisation of the ecological footprint and environmental monitoring.

A mini-session included in this session will be organised by the Fisheries Research and Education Agency of Japan (FRA Japan) and Ifremer on “Coastal ecosystems and bivalve production”. (see News)

Key words: fishing, new and traditional aquaculture, minimisation of the ecological footprint on ecosystems, environmental monitoring and contributions to the increase of knowledge on exploited or cultivated resources.