Operationalising Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation for aquaculture

The OCCAM project envisions a resilient, sustainable, and climate-smart future for European aquaculture. Guided by the principle of Occam’s razor—favouring the simplest effective solutions—it develops, tests, and scales innovative, practical, and replicable strategies to address the complex challenges posed by climate change.

Through a collaborative, multi-actor approach involving industry leaders, research institutions, and policy stakeholders, OCCAM pilots a suite of 13 adaptation and mitigation solutions across nine diverse case studies.

The project seeks to empower the aquaculture sector with actionable knowledge, scalable technologies, and policy-ready recommendations that reduce environmental impact while enhancing competitiveness, food security, and socio-economic sustainability across Europe.

SAMS' role

SAMS leads Case Study 5, related to harmful algal bloom (HAB) early warning, in close collaboration with colleagues at Seafood Shetland. Our industry/academia partnership works to enhance and develop the provision HAB and biotoxin early alert systems to mitigate their impacts, safeguarding both shellfish consumers and the economic prosperity of the Shetland aquaculture sector.

SAMS also contributes to the testing of the sea lice decision support tool of Case Study 3. 

SAMS is also involved in Work Package 6, developing and producing engaging short videos for 4 representative case studies and a final film giving a concise narrative/overview of the whole project.