The ocean is key to food security as the main source of protein for more than a billion people. Some 600 million worldwide depend on fisheries and aquaculture for their livelihoods.

As hunger continues to spread around the world, urgent efforts are needed to safeguard the ocean and ensure that it continues to provide food for a growing global population, in a sustainable way.

Ahead of Thursday’s World Oceans Day, Manuel Barange, Director of the Food and Aquaculture Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), has been talking to FAO’s Michele Zaccheo about the promise of aquaculture, or farming in water, and how the ocean is an essential part of the solution to the interlinked issues of poverty, malnutrition, food security and climate change.