Introduction:

The One Health concept attempts to provide infrastructure upon which promotion of secure and equitable food systems can be built. Amongst the agricultural methodologies, aquaculture is proving to be a field with exponential growth and potential. In order to capitalize on the benefits of increased seafood production, while reducing the likelihood of potential harm caused by the industry, support during planning stages is prudent. Currently, there is a lack of available tools to support methodical ways of assessing impacts during the planning stage. Hence, a rubric that can be used as an aid in planning is presented in this paper. The rubric is intended to guide the assiduous land-based aquaculture planner(s) in using a collaborative, One Health centered process by posing questions and providing prompts regarding impacts to consider.

The Aquaculture Rubric: A Simple Tool

The rubric is arranged in three key One Health categories: 1) Cultural Competency, 2) Current or Projected Impacts, and 3) Mitigation or Development Strategies. Each category is aligned with human, animal and environmental concerns and prompts related to each are appended. The development of the rubric was based on an extensive review of literature on successful land-based aquaculture systems as well as literature on ones that have failed or had negative impacts on the people or land in a region. Focused questions are attached to the rubric to encourage consideration of pertinent topics that may fall outside of the rubric criteria that may facilitate initiatives. The rubric user(s) may envisage the start-up or facility of interest in all stages from design to seafood production to marketing and complete as much information in the rubric prompts as possible. Some rubric segments may be more or less fitting based on the setting and location, size, type (methodology and farmed species), etc., and can be modified according to the specific needs.

The rubric is designed to aid in the communication of expectations and fundamentals of a project, raise awareness of potential setbacks, improve the initiation phases of land based designs, support working through complications in a timely and detailed fashion and as a mechanism to clarify intentions through organized communication. The essence of the rubric is intended to elucidate obstacles and can be modified by the user(s). It is intended to serve as a baseline and initiator of progress in planning using a One Health approach.