Over the past two decades, the global aquaculture industry has increased its focus on sustainability, according to a recent review published in Nature. Aquaculture production can help feed the world’s growing population by providing an important source of protein. And as overfishing of oceans continues to increase, research shows that the world must find alternate sources of seafood to meet demand.

“I think there’s a lot of exciting promise there for feeding a hungry population with reduced environmental impact,” Dane Klinger, a co-author on the paper and Director of Aquaculture at Conservation International, tells Food Tank. “But the incentives have to be there to do it right.”

Since the late 1990s, the aquaculture sector has gained importance, with global production volume more than tripling from 1997 to 2017. Offshore aquaculture, also referred to as open ocean aquaculture, is a small but growing portion of the industry.

“A lot of the modeling that scientists have done indicates that in many cases, offshore aquaculture can be an effective means of producing more seafood with less environmental impact,” Klinger says. “The big question for offshore is how much is too much?”

Read the full article about global aquaculture by Anna Tobin at Food Tank.