Transcript Dias nummer 1 - Seas The Future

Prospects for fish farming at sea and future
challenges for the aquaculture industry in the
North Atlantic
Øystein Patursson
Fiskaaling / Aquaculture Research Station of the Faroes
www.fiskaaling.fo
[email protected]
seasthefuture
Nordic Oceans Conference, 7 & 8 June 2011
The Nordic House, Tórshavn, Faroe Islands
Overwiev
• Introduction
• Fish farming in the Faroe Islands
• What are we doing correct now?
• Possibilities for expanding this industry
• Research can make this process knowledge based
Fish farming – Future challenges
• Global demand for food is increasing
• World wide fisheries have stagnated
• Demand for fish farming products
• Any production that aims at producing food for the future
needs to be sustainable
– Salmon farming utilizes the food much better than meat
produced in agriculture
– The impact on the environment needs to be kept within a
sustainable limit
– The production itself also needs to be kept sustainable to ensure
the wellbeing of the farmed fish
Sustainability!
Competing on the global market
Low production cost
• Optimize biological output
– Low mortalities
– Fast growth
– Low FCR
• Reduce production cost
– Large units
– Price of feed
High sales price
• Value added products
• Organic or similar production
• Large fish
Sustainability!
Happy fish
The Faroe Islands
•Mostly open ocean
•Exposed to waves
•Strong tidal currents
Faroe Islands
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18 islands
113 km north-south
75 km east-west
Land area 1393 km2
Pop: 48,660 (Jan. 2010)
• Fish farming is located in
almost every sheltered
location
• Farmed trout and salmon:
48,662 tonnes (2009, gutted
weight)
Production
60000
Expected
Trout
50000
Salmon
40000
30000
20000
10000
ISA
ISA: Infectious salmon anemia
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
1993
1992
1991
0
1990
Harvest weight, gutted (t)
• Production has been quite
variable (max of 52,000 tonnes
in 2003)
• The largest drop in production
(16,000 tonnes in 2006)
followed a series of ISA
outbreaks
• Regulation became much
stricter after this
• Production was back up to
49,000 tonnes in 2009
• There is a reduction in
production in 2010
• Production in 2011 is expected
to increase to 49,000 tonnes
again (R. Dam 2011)
The Faroese farming industry
• Eggs
– Mostly local production (Aquaculture Research Station of the Faroes)
and some import since 2005
• Smolts
– Local production
– Development is from many small flow through stations to few large
stations using recirculation
• On-growing
– Sea sites
– Number of sites had a maximum of 63 with the same number of
operators
– Number of sites down to 40, organized in 23 management areas and
operated by 5 operators
– Cages have grown to 128m circumference and exposed sites are
favored in front of the most sheltered.
Something is done right
• The Faroese salmon farming
industry has evolved into being
among the best in the world
– Farming zones
– Fallowing periods
– Regulated transport
25
Mortalities (%)
• Part of this is due to strict
regulations
30
20
15
10
5
The challenge is to expand and keep the fine result
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998
1997
1996
1995
1994
• Most distinct difference is the
low number of mortalities
1993
0
(R. Dam, 2011)
Fish farming in island groups
Disadvantages
• Distance from marked
• Harsh weather conditions
and advantages
• Isolation from disease and
pollution
• Good dispersion of effluents
• Stable water quality
• Few operators
Farming conditions
Currents
• Most farms located in bays or fjords with
slow currents
• Outside the fjords, the tidal currents are
strong
• The strong currents disperse whatever is
spread into these currents very fast
around the entire shelf
• Concentrations are thinned out equally
fast
Waves
• Require strong equipment
• Better conditions on the bottom under fish
farms
• Therefore the sites support quite high
biomasses
Possibilities for expansion
Increase the current farming industry
• Increase farming at existing sites
• New sites
• Increase land based farming
Diversify the industry
• New species
– Fish
– Shellfish
– Seaweed
• IMTA (Integrated multi trophic aquaculture) or polyculture
Sheltered sites
• Sheltered for waves and current
• Little dispersion of effluents and disease agents
• Large benthic impact
• Little carrying capacity
• Careful planning required to avoid benthic problems,
problems with salmon louse etc.
Exposed sites
Positive effects
• Water exchange
• Dispersion of effluents
Large carrying capacity
Negative effects
• Large strain on equipment
• Tough working conditions
• Harsh environment for the farmed species
Need to design according to fish and working environment
Open ocean
Extreme environment
The area of the shelf with depth 0-200m is 20000km2
-That is more than 10 times the area of the Faroe Islands
Diversification
Shellfish
• Bottom dwelling
– Scallops
• Suspended culture
– Mussels
– Scallops
Seaweed
• Suspended culture
– Alaria esculenta
– Saccharina
Important to chose species that suit the farming environment
IMTA - Integrated Multi Trophic Aquaculture
• Integrating species from several trophic levels into one
system
– Seabased IMTA
• Salmon – Mussels – Kelp
• Little control
– Landbased IMTA
• Better control
• Biofilter in recirculating systems
• A method to obtain a “greener” brand
• Necessary to make sure that farming several species
does not reduce the welfare of the other species
More knowledge needed
• Current and waves
• Exchange rates in cages
– Minimum water flow
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Equipment for exposed sites
Fish welfare on exposed sites
Biofouling
Benthic environment
Possible new species
Equipment for large scale land based farming
Assessing carrying capacity of exposed sites
Ongoing research
• Currents and waves in faroese fish farming fjords
– Measure and model the current and wave environment
– Classification of sites
– Planning of aquaculture activities
• Exposed sites and open ocean
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Equipment
Logistics
Fish behavior
Fish health and welfare
Ongoing research (cont.)
• Cage environment
– Water exchange
– Effect of biofouling
• Benthic environment
– Effect of waves on the benthic environments
• Diversification
– Farming of cod
– Mussel farming
Research partners
In the Faroe Islands
• Aquaculture Research Station of the Faroes
• University of the Faroes
• Faroe Marine Research Institute
• Industry partners
and some of the international partners
• SINTEF, Norway
• Institute of Marine Research, Norway
• University of Stirling, Scotland
• Danish Technical University, Denmark
• University of New Hampshire, USA
• US Naval Academy, USA
Discussion
• Research is ongoing within the operational aspects and
environmental impact of fish farming in exposed sites
• An important issue for faroese aquaculture is to gain
more knowledge on the carrying capacity of the entire
shelf system
– Parasites
– Disease
• When working in an atypical environment as the Faroe
Islands, we have to fund a large portion of the research
ourselves
Thank you!
Large fjord system vs islands
One fjord has a larger production than all the Faroe Islands
Hardangerfjord, Norway
Faroe Islands
Management areas
The colors show
approximately the
management areas
Water quality
•
Stable water temperatures.
Mean is around 8 oC and
min and max are 2-3 oC
lower and higher
respectively.
•
Well mixed water column.
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Only harmful algal blooms
at the most sheltered sites
Larsen etal., 2008
• Fish farming in the Nordic region consists to a large
degree of farming of salmonids. Expansion of this
industry requires careful planning of the production
practices to avoid health and environment problems.
Current fish farming in the Faroe Islands utilizes all
sheltered sites and the focus now is on optimizing
production on these sites and to take more exposed
sites into use. The aquaculture research in this area and
future challenges will be described.