Aquaculture Annie Doerr EEES

Goal : General Understanding of Aquaculture Origins Aquaculture today Benefits and concerns Possible solutions

oxbow lakes reserviors monsoon waters netted coves Origins

Recent History 50% seafood comes from aquaculture (SIC) Aquaculture contribution to seafood supply increased from 3.9% (1970) to 29.9% (2002) (FAO)

Recent History Aquaculture’s growing faster than any other meat industry average growth since 1970: aquaculture 8.9%/yr fisheries 1.2%/yr terrestrial meat 2.8%/yr (FAO)

Recent History 4. Largest growth in China (FAO) : $60 billion value in US

Basics 1.Aquaculture = farming aquatic organisms (fish, mollusks, crustaceans, aquatic plants) 1.Sources: wild capture (20%), hatchery (80%) (FAO)

freshwater culture(57.7%)mariculture (36.5%) brackish-water (5.8%) sea ranching designs/live-aboard-floating-platform-poor-aquaculture-a-susta

Benefits Decrease pressure on wild fish Less expensive than industrial fishing - better human diets & less unsustainable fisheries

Problems 1. Disease & parasites - spread to wild fish, antibiotics 2. Fish feed - ↓ stocks, “farming tigers”, raw feed spreads disease 3. Genetic pollution invasives - escaped domestic fish

Problems 4. Loss of natural habitat - invasive captures, farm location (20% mangrove destruction) 5. Pollution from concentrated sewage - smother benthos, eutrophication, ↓ DO

Traditional vs. Integrated Multi- tropic Aquaculture of Gracilaria chilensis 60% salmanoid feed stays in water Gracilaria chilensis (seaweed) removes amonia and nitrates from water

Integrated aquaculture = raising fish with another crop

Traditional vs. Integrated Multi- tropic Aquaculture of Gracilaria chilensis Study examines potential of seaweed to filter excess nutrients from salmon farms

L1: 800m - top L2: 7km - top L3: control - top L4: bottom

Growth Patterns Summer and autumn growth patterns (mean ± (SE), n = 30) of Gracilaria chilensis cultivated at different distances from the salmon cages (L1 = 100 m, L2 = 800 m, L3 = 7000 m and L4 = bottom culture). A. Relative Growth Rate (% day − 1 ) and B. Productivity (g m − 1 month − 1 ). Letters indicate the groups differentiated by posthoc tests, when these were significant at P < summerautumn

1.Seaweed most effective floating at intermediate distance 2.Farming seaweed near fish farms would reduce nutrient outputs from aquaculture

Possible Solutions 1. Integrated aquaculture 2. Replace wild-caught fry with hatchery fry 3. Better shipment and feeding methods 4. Better labels for seafood "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." - Michael Pollan

Questions?

Resources: Food & Agriculture Org. (FAO) Seafood Industry Council (SIC)