18 September 2024

On land as in water, there can be no food security without biodiversity: it allows plants and animals to reproduce and grow, adapt to natural and human-induced impacts, resist diseases and parasites, and continue to evolve.

Aquatic biodiversity is the basis on which aquaculture can exist and grow sustainably. It determines the adaptability and resilience of species to changing environments and is the foundation for the genetic improvement of farmed species. The effective management of aquatic genetic resources is therefore vital to secure future supplies of aquatic food in a sustainable way.

One key enabler to make this happen is AquaGRIS, a public online database of farmed aquatic species and their wild relatives. While similar online inventories exist for livestock and terrestrial plants, none had yet been developed for aquaculture.