Application of Fourth Industrial Revolution Technologies to Marine Aquaculture for Future Food:Imperatives,Challenges and Prospects

This study was undertaken to examine the options and feasibility of deploy­ing new technologies for transforming the aquaculture sector with the ob­jective of increasing the production efficiency.Selection of technologies to obtain the expected outcome should,obviously,be consistent with the crite­ria of sustainable development.There is a range of technologies being sug­gested for driving change in aquaculture to enhance its contribution to food security.It is necessary to highlight the complexity of issues for systems approach that can shape the course of development of aquaculture so that it can live-up to the expected fish demand by 2030 in addition to the current quantity of 82.1 million tons.Some of the Fourth Industrial Revolution(IR4.0)technologies suggested to achieve this target envisage the use of re­al-time monitoring,integration of a constant stream of data from connected production systems and intelligent automation in controls.This requires ap­plication of mobile devices,internet of things(IoT),smart sensors,artificial intelligence(AI),big data analytics,robotics as well as augmented virtual and mixed reality.AI is receiving more attention due to many reasons.Its use in aquaculture can happen in many ways,for example,in detecting and mitigating stress on the captive fish which is considered critical for the success of aquaculture.While the technology intensification in aquaculture holds a great potential but there are constraints in deploying IR4.0 tools in aquaculture.Possible solutions and practical options,especially with re­spect to future food choices are highlighted in this paper.

Oceans and COVID-19:Perspectives,Reflections,Recovery and Regulatory Frameworks

COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented public health crisis,taken about 1.4 million lives so far,infected almost 70 million people around the world,battered the global economy and paralyzed the normal activity.This situation is evolving so rapidly that the data on numbers of infections and deaths are changing daily and the economic impacts are difficult to evaluate at this stage and probably will not be exactly known in the near future.It is important to determine the genesis of the outbreak to understand the root causes of COVID-19 and to prevent such pandemics from occurring in the future.It is believed that the virus originated in a seafood market in Wuhan(China)that was also trading in wildlife for human consumption.Such practices are associated with the habitat degradation and biodiversity loss,leading to an imbalance of the natural ecosystems.The zoonotic spillover of this infectious outbreak is a reflection of the impairment of natural systems.Scientific and anecdotal evidences demonstrate the significance of marine critical habitats in combating and containing human diseases.There are many other ways in which the oceans can help in human health.In addition to providing an analysis of the COVID-19 outbreak,this paper also suggests knowledge-based and informed measures that need to be applied to prevent a repeat of such catastrophic events while highlighting the role of oceans in this context.Plans and strategies for recovering the global economy and ensuring its resilience will require incorporating nature-based solutions and ecosystem restoration.The sustainability of the ocean is a key consideration in the development of a framework for post-COVID-19 recovery and this aspect is the major focus of this paper.