WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • MARCH 2013 51 advantage: the farms, mainly floating cages, use two resources that are in a great abundance near islands: clean seawater and easy access to sites from remote beaches (Klaoudatos et al. 1996). Therefore, despite some difficulties today, investors continue to show an interest in establishing fish farms in the Aegean Sea. There are, however, questions about whether and how this human activity can contribute to sustainable development. Some aspects of rapid aquaculture development require further attention. Concerns relate to the environment (Karakassis et al. 2005), health and animal welfare, and potential user conflicts with capture fisheries and recreational activities. Common criteria to evaluate all economic activities should include socioeconomic and environmental costs and benefits. Adoption of a DPSR framework (Driving Forces - Pressure - State - Response), which initially included only environmental pressure indicators (European Commission 1999), helps separate the causes (driving forces; the human activities examined) from pressures at the regional scale from these activities. Parameters that describe the state of an area can be broadened to include economic and social issues (enhanced DPSR or eDPSR). A simple system is proposed that monitors the progress of each local society by calculating a number of indicators that measure the state (S) and its change over time as pressure (P) is applied from mariculture (DF). This approach reflects the fact that sustainable development has different content for different societies and comparisons can be misleading. The advantage of this approach is that one can compare similar states of sustainability for the same society and obtain meaningful results (Chatziefstathiou et al. 2006). Measuring the Sustainability of Marine Aquaculture The sustainability analysis calls for the consensual setting of a “band of equilibrium” for a list of indicators, making it possible to evaluate the sustainability of the present situation in the target region and to determine what is desirable and what is unacceptable. The projection of these indicators also makes it possible to evaluate the region’s sustainable development levels and, thus, its future sustainability (Spilanis et al. 2005). The purpose of the research is not to consider the prospect of sustainability of marine aquaculture, the usual research aim, but to develop a methodology and propose an exclusive set of indicators to assess the contribution of marine aquaculture to the sustainable development of Aegean Sea island areas. Two different kinds of measurements are implemented: the performance and impact of marine fish farming and the factors affecting the performance and impact. For the purposes of the method developed, the evaluation of activities is based on two steps: 1. The performance per production unit, which relates to the added value, the employment created at the area, water use, energy use, and waste production. 2. The scale of the examined human activity compared to the carrying capacity of the host area. In this method, sustainable development is considered a continuous process that leads simultaneously to the improvement of economic, social and environmental goals adopted by each local society. This approach is shown in Figure 1 (page 26). It is common practice to develop a single indicator of sustainable development, but this approach has not been adopted here. To get a better picture of progress in each of the three sustainable development dimensions and to help policymakers offer clear suggestions, the overall number of factors on economy, environment, and society is taken into consideration, without weighting each factor the same. Typical net pen farms in the Aegean Sea. (CONTINUED ON PAGE 52) An aquaculture development plan for an island region must have as an objective the provision of a sound basis for development, while simultaneously conserving the unique environment of the islands for present and future generations. Establishment of fish farms on islands is based on a comparative advantage: the farms, mainly floating cages, use two resources that are in a great abundance near islands: clean seawater and easy access to sites from remote beaches. Therefore, despite some difficulties today, investors continue to show an interest in establishing fish farms in the Aegean Sea.
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