University casts its net over seafood - with new think-tank

A growing global population, climate changes and dwindling supplies of sea fish stocks could all affect supplies reaching consumers' tables in the future.

"These are challenging times for seafood industries," said Professor Rachel Norman, chair of the University's new Aquatic Food Security Group.

"It is clear that Omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish such as salmon and sardines, have many health benefits, but recently there's been a study suggesting that they could increase the risk of prostate cancer in men. We are interested in how we manage diets to make the most of the health benefits that fish offer. "Oysters, meanwhile, can pose a risk of norovirus. The industry has worked hard to successfully reduce this risk but are there ways of improving the virus detection methods? "Diners are also wary that they may not be served up the fish that's supposed to be on the menu. How can we protect consumers more - and ensure that the fish they order is the fish they're given? "These are the kind of things we'll be looking as a group. Hopefully we can explore some of real challenges facing the industry - but also offer ideas to help offer sustainable supplies of fish and fish products to consumers in the years to come." Food security is a global issue. Growing populations, climate change, diseases and an increase in wealth in developing countries all mean that the demand for food is expected to increase significantly over the next 40 years.  "Most work on food security focuses on crops or terrestrial mammals," said Professor Norman. "With the excellent research being carried out in the University of Stirling's Institute of Aquaculture, Stirling is uniquely placed to tackle the issues related to food security in the aquatic environment.  "Despite some worries, seafood, overall, is efficiently produced, desirable and highly nutritious." The new group will be officially launched at MASTS - the Marine Alliance for Science and Technology for Scotland - which is meeting at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh this week. The Aquatic Food Security Group is hosting a workshop on Thursday 29 August entitled "Aquatic Food Security - Scotland's role for a global market" at which invited speakers will discuss both the Scottish and UK position on aquatic food security.  This will be followed by a debate about what is unique about aquatic food products and a "horizon scanning" exercise, where the issues facing Scotland will be discussed. Professor Norman previously worked in Computing Science and Mathematics at Stirling, on mathematical models of the dynamics and control of wildlife diseases. The other members of the group are:  Dr Mags Crumlish, a microbiologist who is interested in disease diagnostics and food safety; Amaya Albalat who is a physiologist interested in food quality; Oscar Monroig, who works on sustainable ways to feed fish and maintain their health benefits; and Anthony O'Hare who is also a mathematical modeller who is interested in game theoretical approaches to dynamic interacting systems. Professor Norman said: "I'm delighted that the University has invested in this group. Food security - in terms of protecting supplies and the quality of the food produced - is a really critical issue and our focus here, on aquatic food products, is both unique and important. We have some really interesting projects in mind and cannot wait to get started."