This is to be achieved by establishing a consortium of aquaculture research partners and aquaculture SMEs across Europe. This consortium will gather information on aquaculture production in different regions, to establish present status and identify possible limitations for future development.
Aquaculture production will in the future make up an increasing proportion of all seafood consumed, and this is likely to lead to increased interest in farming of fish. It is generally agreed that seafood is a valuable resource of human nutrition and contribute to a healthy diet. As such, increased aquaculture production should be stimulated to provide healthy food and secure quality of life in Europe.
Culture and farming of fish is an ancient tradition. Production strategies developed more than a thousand years ago are still basis for many producers today, but technological development has also allowed for highly sophisticated production plants.
Thus, production plants active today represents the whole span from low tech earth ponds to high tech intensive RAS. Low tech also represents reduced waste management level and control, and reduced control over the production factors themselves; features of production highly valued today.
However, the persistent existence of these, from a technological point of view, primitive production strategies reflects some benefits as compared to alternative methods.
Successful choice of production method is likely to depend on various factors, such as environmental conditions (e.g. climate, temperature), natural resources (e.g. availability and quality of water, recipient capacity), economical and labour resources and market value of the product. These are factors that vary from region to region, and it is not likely that a single production strategy will fit all.
However, RAS is probably the type of land based aquaculture production that interfere the least with the environment, particularly by low water requirement and low volume of effluent water. RAS are land based aquaculture production systems that can be operated in isolation from its environment, and consequently its impact on the environment can be controlled. Water can be drawn from different sources, open waters or boreholes. The effluent can be treated before discharge or used for agricultural purposes, and its influence on the environment can be completely controlled and even eliminated. Escapees, being fish or pathogens, can be completely eliminated if so required.
The more specific objectives of this project are:
- Identify the bottlenecks limiting development of aquaculture in EU countries. Further, to evaluate the suitability of RAS to overcome these bottlenecks.
- To evaluate the suitability of existing RAS in relation to local conditions and fish species, and the need for adaptation of these systems to specific local culture conditions.
- Share information concerning the different recirculation systems used in European countries in order to establish the state of the art of existing knowledge.
- Prepare future community RTD activity on recirculation systems aimed at developing sustainable recirculation systems under diverse conditions in Eastern and Western Europe.
