Options on Fisheries and Aquaculture for Coping with Climate Change in South Asia.

Fisheries and aquaculture have very important roles for food supply, food security and income generation in South Asia. About 7.5 million people work directly in the sector in this region, producing around 8.5 million tonnes annually. Due to several reasons, production from fisheries is stagnant in the last ten years, and aquaculture is not expanding as anticipated. Climate change is projected to exacerbate this situation. The potential outcome for fisheries may be decrease in production and value of coastal and inland fisheries, and decline in the economic returns from fishing operations. The potential outcome for aquaculture may be higher capital, operating and insurance costs, loss of fish stocks, damage to facilities, conflict with other water users, reduced production capacity and increased per unit production costs. Despite the uncertainties and potential negative impacts of climate change on -fisheries and aquaculture, there are opportunities to reduce the vulnerability to -climate-related impacts. The following measures could contribute to coping with -climate change: (i) evaluating the adaptive capacity of important fish groups; (ii) -identifying adaptive fishing and post-harvest practices to sustain fish production and quality; (iii) supporting energy efficient fishing craft and gear; (iv) identifying new land use system for aquaculture; (v) identifying new candidate species and developing hatchery and grow-out technologies; (vi) cultivating aquatic algae, which have positive response to climate change for food and pharmaceutical -purposes and for production of biodiesel; (vii) investigating the potential fish -diseases in the natural and aquaculture systems; (viii) increasing climate literacy among the fishing and farming communities; (ix) establishing Weather Watch Groups; and (x) evolving decision support systems for fisheries and aquaculture in the region. It is also important to recognize the synergies between adaptive and mitigation options related to climate change and non-climatic factors such as responsible fisheries, and ecofriendly aquaculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]