Le développement durable : un défi pour l'aquaculture marine en Méditerranée

Mediterranean aquaculture production has increased extensively over the past 10 years (25% per year) and now constitutes a credible alternative to fishing. It now has to take the concepts of sustainability into account, placing it in a very challenging and competitive context. The current question is to know whether aquaculture companies can face up to this challenge and what the consequences will be. in order to answer this question, several surveys were carried out in the Mediterranean. They aimed at i) establishing a typology of companies based on their developmental logic, management practices and constraints; and ii) collecting information on the main stakeholders' feelings about sustainable development. These studies confirm that while such companies are complying to demanding market constraints, their current practices are not far removed from the concepts of sustainability. However, their active participation in such a dynamic of sustainable development necessitates organizational innovation and collective projects involving all the stakeholders of the sector.