Medidas de Gestao das Pescarias Marinhas e Aquicultura 2019 The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2018 | Page 194

PART 4 OUTLOOK AND EMERGING ISSUES
shrimp production has suffered from serious
disease outbreaks (Subasinghe, 2017). In
response, NACA established the regional
Quarterly Aquatic Animal Disease Reporting
System. In the Near East, RECOFI has developed
a Regional Strateg y on Aquatic Animal Health
(FAO, 2016k); held a regional training course on
risk analysis for movements of live aquatic
animals and a round-table meeting on regional
aquatic biosecurit y (FAO, 2017aa); and is
promoting the implementation of spatial
planning tools for marine capture fisheries and
aquaculture (Meaden et al., 2016). (Christensen, 1997). Disruption can mean drastic
alteration or destruction of existing things or
elements of societ y. Disruptive technologies
therefore have the potential to change the way
people work, do business and engage in the
global economy. While innovation or incremental
progress involves improving existing
technologies and processes, disruptive
technologies provide new ways to meet
objectives. Personal computers, smartphones and
light-emitting diode (LED) lights are recent
examples of technologies that were disruptive
when first implemented.
Aquaculture provides, globally, about 19 million
jobs in the primary (production) sector. RFBs are
supporting countries for increased employment
generation, based on decent work and social
protection, in initiatives involving areas such as
technology transfer and innovation, sharing of
aquaculture good practices for climate change
adaptation, entrepreneurship and biosecurity. For
example, improvement in the quality and
performance of fish feed in cages at sea and the use
of land-based technologies have permitted great
diffusion of aquaculture in favourable coastal
environments (Massa, Onofri and Fezzardi, 2017). In the fisheries and aquaculture sector, disruptive
technologies have the potential to change fishing
activit y by providing fishers with more
information so that fishing is safer (e.g. weather
forecasting), more precise (e.g. satellite
positioning) and more predictable. Emerging
technologies for gathering information and
storing it safely have the potential to improve
compliance with reg ulations and traceabilit y, so
that the sustainabilit y and management of fish
resources will improve substantially.
New disruptive technologies affecting the sector
include mobile internet (e.g. providing real-time
market prices for fish), advanced robotics (e.g.
automatic fish filleting) and the “Internet of
Things”, or interconnectedness among systems,
devices and advanced sensors (e.g. electronic
fish tags). FAO encourages innovation and
adoption of new technologies, including
disruptive ones. Disruptive technologies can
offer new ways for the fisheries and aquaculture
sector to do business so that it is more
sustainable and more resource and energ y
efficient while creating new decent work
opportunities, including opportunities for
women and youth.
R FBs are the main regional mechanisms for
developing regional aquaculture policies, coping
with critical emerging issues and g uiding
aquaculture development. As they expand their
work, policy and constituencies in the
aquaculture sector, RFBs will need to take a
strategic approach, in collaboration with
interested stakeholders and partners including
civil societ y, the private sector, academia,
consumers and the media, to ensure that
aquaculture development is sustainably managed
and that its contribution to the SDGs is fully
realized and valued at the national and regional
levels (see also Hambrey, 2017). n
Along the fish-food value chain, emerging
disruptive technologies may change the way
fisheries economies are organized, with
consumers asking for sustainably caught fish
from traceable and transparent sources, and
fishers offering ”on-demand” products from
selective and safe fisheries. The disruptive
technologies are becoming increasingly
affordable and promise to change behaviour and
the economy, even for small-scale fishers.
DISRUPTIVE
TECHNOLOGIES
The term “disruptive technolog y” was coined to
describe “new technologies that still lack
refinement, often have performance problems,
are just known to a limited public, and might not
yet have a proven practical application”
| 178 |