Professor Trevor Telfer gave a keynote presentation “Sustainable mariculture; understanding carrying capacity” at the 8th International Conference on Marine Pollution and Ecotoxicology (ICMPE-8) held in Hong Kong, 20-24th June 2016. The presentation introduced the concept of carrying capacity for sustainable aquatic food production. Summarising why carrying capacity is important in the context of future development of coastal aquaculture, and why it is important for selection of appropriate production sites.

This included the latest global opinions of the topic and considered the characterisation of the different types of carrying capacity, how they interact, and methods for their evaluation. Trevor also highlighted and discussed a number of outstanding questions and problems in the implementation of carrying capacity to support mariculture, in addition to the way forward with site selection and carrying capacity estimation within the Ecosystem Approach to Aquaculture.