Looking for Sustainable solutions in salmon aquaculture

Abstract

Sustainable development poses highly complex issues for those who attempt to implement it. Using the Brundtland Commission's definition of sustainable development as a vantage point, this article discusses the issues posed by the production of one kind of food, farmed Atlantic salmon, as a means of illustrating the complexity, interconnectedness and highdata requirements involved in assessing whether a given industry is sustainable. These issues are explored using the three commonly accepted aspects of sustainability - its environmental, social and economic aspects - and the dilemmas posed by the need to make the trade-offs necessary among these. It concludes by arguing that decisions of this complexity require complex and multiple decision-making structures and suggests four that are essential for the task.