The environmental impacts of aquaculture are often in the spotlight. The need for sustainable practices is now firmly embedded in the minds of the public, governments and industry – but this sometimes presents trade-offs in fish welfare.
Ananda Arrieta is helping to pioneer the use of bioremediation in Australia's aquaculture sector and sees her work as an essential part of the evolution of land-based aquaculture systems.
Stolt Sea Farm is already one of the leading flatfish farming companies in the West – producing over 7,000 tonnes of turbot and sole in sustainable land-based facilities – and it has ambitious plans to expand.
Although the $4 billion giant river prawn (Macrobrachium ronsebergii) sector has largely stagnated over the last decade, new breeding programmes could help pave the way for its resurgence.
Ocean 14 Capital Fund, which is over half way to raising €150 million, is looking to make a series of game-changing investments in the aquaculture sector as it seeks to improve global food security while ensuring the long-term health of the oceans.
Artificial reefs made from innovative, low-carbon emission materials have the potential to improve biodiversity around aquaculture sites and may even open up opportunities for multi-trophic aquaculture, according to Max Morgan-Kay of ARC Marine.
While the oceans are still hugely efficient at producing bivalves such as mussels and oysters, it would be complacent not to consider a future when producing them in urban environments had its merits.
Forty-year-old Arturo Nieves works as production director of the shrimp farming company Aquacultores del Mar Azul, located in the state of Sinaloa, Mexico.
As land-based and RAS facilities proliferate, they need a way to address their waste footprint. “Circular aquaculture” could be the way forward – but should producers rely on bacteria, algae or biogas to achieve circularity?
Leading vannamei shrimp producers from Guatemala, Venezuela and Sri Lanka – as well as some of the new generation of RAS and biofloc farmers – are set to discuss their operations at a special session of the Global Shrimp Forum on 8 September.