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Aquaculture in the Greater North Sea ecoregion

ICES publishes its first aquaculture overview for this productive ecoregion.

Published: 20 November 2025

ICES has published the first-ever Aquaculture Overview for the Greater North Sea ecoregion, providing a comprehensive assessment of aquaculture activities across Belgium, the Channel Islands, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the UK (England and Scotland). This publication presents environmental, socio-economic, and industry trends as well as highlighting emerging challenges and opportunities for sustainable aquaculture growth in one of Europe’s busiest marine areas.

A diverse and productive sector

The Greater North Sea ecoregion supports a wide range of aquaculture practices, from small-scale family operations using traditional methods to large enterprises adopting innovative growing techniques. Shellfish farming has a long history and cultural significance in several areas, particularly oyster farming in France and mussel farming in the Wadden Sea, and remains the most widespread type of aquaculture, accounting for roughly a quarter of production volume. Finfish farming dominates economically, representing about three-quarters of production and driving growth over the past three decades. Emerging sectors, such as crustaceans, seaweed, and microalgae, remain small but show potential for future diversification.

Environmental and social context

The ecoregion’s rich marine ecosystems support multiple human activities, including fisheries, shipping, tourism, and energy. Aquaculture shares the seas with these sectors, interacting directly and indirectly through competition for space and environmental impacts. Whilst challenges include nutrient enrichment, habitat alteration, and potential effects on wild species, aquaculture can also deliver ecological benefits such as habitat formation and water quality improvements.

Environmental protection acts both as a boundary and a driver for aquaculture, shaping sustainable practices while promoting socio-economic progress. Marine spatial planning (MSP) is increasingly used to reconcile ecological, economic, and social objectives, helping to reduce conflicts and optimize sector growth.

Community-focused initiatives demonstrate aquaculture’s broader social value. Coastal communities in France and the Netherlands have had economically beneficial shellfish farms as part of their seascape for centuries, but more recently marine allotments in Denmark and Sweden allow local stakeholders to cultivate shellfish and seaweed in shared spaces, promoting environmental stewardship, ocean literacy, and tourism. Similarly, artisanal oyster and mussel farms integrated with tourism offer income diversification while connecting communities to sustainable aquaculture practices.

Innovation and technology

Research and innovation are central to the sector’s development. Investments from public and private actors support the adoption of new technologies, including offshore farms, enclosed systems for inshore finfish farming, land-based recirculating aquaculture systems, and Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture. These innovations could enable scaled-up production, improving efficiency, reducing environmental impacts, and enhancing transparency and traceability.

Climate change and adaptation

Rising sea temperatures, ocean acidification, and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns pose challenges to farmed species and infrastructure. Climate-driven changes may shift species distributions, alter feed availability, and affect production. Adaptive management, robust monitoring, and climate-informed spatial planning are essential to building resilience. Diversification of species and production systems, including low-trophic and restorative aquaculture, is highlighted as a possible tool to enhance resilience.

Economic significance

Aquaculture contributes significantly to coastal economies, providing employment, income, and locally produced food. However, rising labour costs and a shrinking workforce pose challenges, especially for smaller artisanal farms. Ensuring long-term profitability is key, not just for generating local revenues, but also for sustaining community-focused aquaculture projects. Norway’s salmon industry highlights the difficult balance between economic success, environmental pressures like sea lice, and the importance of public support for industry growth.

Future directions

Diversification, technology development, co-use of marine space, and restorative aquaculture are pointed out as the way forward for aquaculture in this region. Examples include offshore shellfish farms, kelp restoration using green gravel, and native oyster habitat rehabilitation. Emerging species for cultivation include macro- and microalgae, tunicates, and both native (e.g., turbot) and non-native (e.g., yellowtail amberjack) fish species. Co-location of aquaculture with offshore wind farms and tourism can create win-win opportunities, easing spatial conflicts and supporting sustainable growth. EU policies such as the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the Nature Restoration Regulation provide a strong framework for these initiatives.

The Greater North Sea ecosystem Aquaculture Overview provides aquaculture practices, socio-economic contributions, environmental interactions, and future trends across one of Europe’s most intensively used marine regions. By integrating science, technology, and policy, the overview sets the stage for sustainable development, climate adaptation, and strategic sector diversification. It will serve as a key resource for regulators, industry stakeholders, and researchers, supporting informed decision-making and a resilient, future-ready aquaculture sector.

Read the overview

The Greater North Sea ecosystem Aquaculture Overview and the accompanying scientific report from ICES Workshop on the Greater North Sea ecoregion Aquaculture Overview (WKGNSAO) are now available to view and download in ICES Library.

ICES work on aquaculture is part of a wider portfolio that seeks to advance scientific understanding of marine ecosystems and support sustainable management through transparent, state-of-the-art advice.

The Workshop on the Greater North Sea ecoregion Aquaculture Overview was chaired by Ellen Sofie Grefsrud, Norway, Marnix Poelman, the Netherlands, and Henn Ojaveer, Estonia.

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Cultivation of mussels, known as ‘bouchot’ mussels, in the bay of Mont Saint-Michel, France.

What are Aquaculture overviews?

ICES Aquaculture overviews present the interactions of the environmental, economic, and social drivers of aquaculture in an ecoregion as well as future projections and emerging threats and opportunities.

The overviews set the social and economic context for aquaculture in the ecoregion, describing the key drivers of aquaculture development and whether these drivers negatively or positively impact the nature as well as the extent of aquaculture development in the region over time, for example, local food supplies and income/job creation vs international market demands and competition. How will climate change impact the future of aquaculture in terms of opportunities or challenges? What information is there on coastal communities that are affected by aquaculture?

Aquaculture is a high-priority topic for ICES and our work on aquaculture is part of a wider portfolio of work that seeks to advance and share a scientific understanding of marine ecosystems and the services they provide—and to use this knowledge to generate state-of-the-art advice for meeting conservation, management, and sustainability goals.