Director, Centre for Sustainable Seafood

The Centre for Sustainable Seafood

Seafood provides sustainable and low-carbon sources of protein to a world that increasingly requires affordable, high-quality, and nutritious food production. UHI Shetland is seeking to advance the understanding of what sustainability means in the context of seafood through the creation of the new Centre for Sustainable Seafood, in partnership with industry and other key stakeholders.

Through this process of partnership working, we believe there is an opportunity to create a unique centre that provides credible, robust, and targeted science, education, and training to meet the needs of a sustainable seafood sector.

The vision is that a Centre for Sustainable Seafood will provide an independent focus of expertise to support the seafood industry in Scotland, the UK and internationally. The Centre for Sustainable Seafood will be driven by the needs of industry first and foremost, providing the research and skills needed to address global challenges and keep the seafood sector at the cutting edge of sustainable food production.

The Aspirations for the Centre include:

• Producing independent, robust science with integrity
• Undertaking research to inform seafood policy at national and international levels
• Providing policy and management advice and expertise in areas relevant to the seafood sector
• Communicating clearly with the public, learners and industry to set out the facts of sustainability and seafood
• Identifying gaps in educational provision at all levels and creating content relevant to seafood sustainability
• Facilitating research to support the seafood sector to meet net zero targets and make the case for seafood as a climate smart and sustainable food source
• Providing detailed biological data relating to specific species and areas to assist with managing fisheries
• To be a UK-wide project, with European and International context
• To be proactive, as opposed to reactive, in the seafood debate

To see more visit Centre for Sustainable Seafood – UHI Shetland

UHI Shetland has also received funding from the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) to develop new courses aimed at supporting innovation and the future sustainability of the seafood sector in Scotland.  More information on this can be found here.