International agreements about the management of marine resources highlight the need to achieve sustainable development of marine activities through the sustainable use of marine resources, amongst others. Taking this into consideration, the European Commission expresses in the Green Paper on Marine Policy of the EU the need for a comprehensive marine policy aimed at developing an efficient and environmentally sustainable economy, stimulating growth and social welfare, including the creation of new and more skilled job positions. To achieve this goal, it is considered not only necessary to properly conserve living marine resources, but also to maintain and improve the state of the resource in question and the ocean itself. These needs imply a clear move towards an ecosystem-based management based on scientific knowledge. The Marine Strategy Framework Directive establishes the need to reach a satisfactory environmental state of the seas by promoting its sustainable use and protecting the marine ecosystems, given that the marine environment is a valuable heritage that needs to be protected, preserved and, when possible, rehabilitated, with the goal of maintaining biodiversity and preserving the functioning of marine ecosystems.
SUSTAINABLE USE OF MARINE RESOURCES
Management and use of resources
- Line 2.1: Research of resources based on ecosystems knowledge European and international management based on ecosystems knowledge, taxonomy, biodiversity, status and trophic relationships, distribution, reproduction, study of ecosystems and their conservation, interactions between species and use of habitat.
- Line 2.2: Evaluation of ocean systems ecological status. Integrated evaluation of ecosystems, bioindicators, planning, recovery, production, eutrophication, modeling, ecological indexes.
- Line 2.3: Evaluation of fishery and shellfish resources. Ecology of fisheries, population dynamics, biology of exploitable species, population genetics, reproduction, stock identification, resource management, moduling population processes.
- Line 2.4: Evaluation of geological resources. Sedimentary morphodynamics, evaluation and exploitation of geological, mineral and energy resources, gas hydrates, marine nodes, marine pleasures, acoustic and geophysical methods, seismic analysis.
- Line 2.5: Economy, legislation and management of marine resources. Study of bio-economic models, fishery management, exploitation rights, fishery economics, resource sustainability, fisheries regulation, economic exploitation strategy, profits and costs, license management, development of processes, economic valuation of resources, participation, governance.
- Line 2.6: Technology applied to resource management. Communications and positioning in resource extraction, resource monitoring, underwater location, satellite communications, route optimization, modulation of underwater communications, embedded systems.
- Line 2.7: Evaluation of the impact of resources exploitation. Study of fishing discards, minimum sizes, economic and social impact of resources exploitation, protected areas planning and management, regulatory public policies, social preferences for consumption, damage assessment, impact mitigation measures, local and regional impact evaluation, evaluation and management of natural and technological risks.
Aquaculture
- Line 2.8: Marine ecology and crops. Cultivable species, biomarkers, larval culture, environmental impact of aquaculture, metagenomics, bioinformatics, bioeconomic models.
- Line 2.9: Food and nutrition in aquaculture. Enzymes study and research, proteins, peptides, probiotics, nutrition studies, energy balance, biochemical composition of feed, energy metabolism, food safety, metabolic regulation of food, organic aquaculture.
- Line 2.10: Animal welfare. Stress of cultivated species, neurotransmitters, toxics, anesthetics, diseases, parasites, ethical aspects.
- Line 2.11: Biotechnology applied to aquaculture. Proteomics, genomics, molecular genetics, bioinformatics, vaccination, probiotics, antipathogenic, etc. Also research in process automation, data acquisition, control algorithms, supervisory systems, expert systems, artificial vision and its applications in production and transformation , quality control, automatic inspection, real-time processing, fish counting, early detection, automatic sampling, biomass estimation.
- Line 2.12: Harmful algal blooms and marine biotoxins. ABC transporters, detoxification processes, toxic substances, species that generate biotoxins, purification of water and organisms, resistance cysts, DNA damage, types of biotoxins, phylogeny of species, pigments, metabolism of biotoxins.
- Line 2.13: Pathology and immunology of organisms in culture. Applied immunology and pathology, diagnostic systems, virulence, vaccination, immune response, defense mechanisms, epidemiology, toxicology, treatments.
- Line 2.14: Aquaculture economy, legislation and management. Price trends, economic viability, regulatory systems, industries and institutions, financing, strategies and innovation, cooperation plans.
- Line 2.15: Genetics and genomics applied to aquaculture. Genomics, transcriptomics, sequencing, phylogeny, microarrays, proteomics, gene expression, evolution, variability, population genetics, selection programs, genetic maps, cloning, cytogenetics, adaptation.
Transformation and valorization
- Line 2.16: New products of marine origin. Methodology, management and production of new marine products such as seaweed, sponges, tunicates, collagen, chitin, omega 3, etc. And addresses concepts such as commercial viability, medical applications, antitumor substances, antibiotics, fermentation, application of enzymes.
- Line 2.17: Marine foods traceability, quality and safety. Study of allergenic proteins, cytotoxicity, genetic traceability, monitoring, quality and safety, molecular identification of species, molecular markers, crimes against public health, persistent pollutants.
- Line 2.18: Seafood markets, commercial networks and valuation. Market studies, internationalization, corporate strategies, consumer preferences, public policies, marketing channels, new species.
- Line 2.19: Obtaining, managing and valuing marine by-products from their extraction to commercialization.