WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • JUNE 2014 1 VOLUME 45, NUMBER 2 THE MAGAZINE OF THE WORLD AQUACULTURE SOCIETY JUNE 2014 W RLD AQUACULTURE Partitioned Ponds
2 JUNE 2014 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG
WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • JUNE 2014 1 WORLD AQUACULTURE MAGAZINE WORLD AQUACULTURE magazine is published by the World Aquaculture Society. The home office address is: World Aquaculture Society, 143 J.M. Parker Coliseum, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA. Tel: +1-225-578-3137; Fax: +1-225-578-3493; e-mail: carolm@was.org. World Aquaculture Society Home Page: www.was.org WORLD AQUACULTURE SOCIETY OFFICERS, 2013-2014 Dr. Michael Schwarz, President Dr. Graham Mair, President-Elect Dr. Kevan Main, Past President Dr. Rebecca Lochmann, Secretary Dr. William Daniels, Treasurer DIRECTORS Dr. Jimmy Avery Dr. Juan Pablo Lazo Dr. Luís André Sampaio Dr. Sandra E. Shumway Dr. Francisco Gomes Mr. Roy Palmer CHAPTER REPRESENTATIVES Farshad Shishehchian, Asian Pacific Kathleen Hartman, USAS Antonio Garza de Yta, Latin America and Caribbean Kwang-Sik Choi, Korea HOME OFFICE STAFF Carol Mendoza, Director, carolm@was.org Judy E. Andrasko, Assistant Director, JudyA@was.org WORLD AQUACULTURE EDITORIAL STAFF John Hargreaves, Editor-in-Chief Mary Nickum, Editor Linda Noble, Layout Editor WAS CONFERENCES AND SALES John Cooksey, Director of Conferences and Sales World Aquaculture Conference Management P.O. Box 2302, Valley Center, CA 92082 Tel: +1-760-751-5005; Fax: +1-760-751-5003 e-mail: worldaqua@aol.com MANUSCRIPTS AND CORRESPONDENCE: Submit manuscripts as Microsoft Word files to Mary Nickum, Editor, World Aquaculture magazine. E-mail: mjnickum@gmail.com. Letters to the Editor or other comments should be sent to the Editor-in-Chief, John Hargreaves at jhargreaves@was.org. WORLD AQUACULTURE (ISSN Number 1041-5602) is published quarterly by the World Aquaculture Society, 143 J.M. Parker Coliseum, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803 USA. Library subscriptions are $50 annually for United States addresses, and $65 annually for addresses outside the United States. Individual subscriptions are a benefit of membership in the World Aquaculture Society. Annual membership dues: Students, $45; Individuals, $65; Corporations (for-profit), $255; Sustaining, $105 (individuals or non-profits); Lifetime (individuals), $1,100; E-Membership, $10 (no publications, meeting discounts and not an active member in last five years). Periodicals Postage paid at Baton Rouge, Louisiana and additional mailing offices. Twenty-five percent of dues is designated for a subscription to World Aquaculture magazine. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the World Aquaculture Society, 143 J.M. Parker Coliseum, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803 USA. ©2013, The World Aquaculture Society. ■ W RLD AQUACULTURE VOL. 45 NO. 2 JUNE 2014 Cover: Harvest (23 t/ha) of hybrid catfish (Ictalurus punctatus x I. furcatus) from a pilot-scale (0.29-ha) split-pond at the National Warmwater Aquaculture Center, Stoneville, MS, USA (Photo: Jimmy Avery). 7 LACQUA 14 to Convene in Guadalajara 8 Highlights from State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2014 9 Partitioned Pond Aquaculture Systems Craig S. Tucker, David E. Brune and Eugene L. Torrans 19 Limitations on Periphyton Productivity and Tilapia Growth from High Hardness and Alkalinity of Groundwater in Yucatán, Mexico Martha Hernández, Eucario Gasca-Leyva, David Valdés and Ana Milstein 23 Composition, Treatment and Use of Saline Groundwater for Aquaculture in the Netherlands Tony van der Hiele, Jan W Rijstenbil, Jorik Creemers and Jouke Heringa 30 Practicality of Liquid Lime Suspensions and Pelleted Lime for Liming Ponds William A. Wurts 32 Current Status of Global Cultivated Seaweed Production and Markets Sasi Nayar and Kriston Bott 39 An Autonomous Wave-Powered Energy System for Net-Pen Aquaculture Dallas Meggitt and Tore Gulli 43 The California Sea Cucumber — a Potential Candidate for Aquaculture A. Kalam Azad, R. Scott McKinley, Ian P. Forster and Christopher M. Pearce 50 Common Octopus Aquaculture in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain): Outlook and Challenges Eduardo Almansa, Rodrigo Riera, José A. Pérez, Catalina Perales-Raya, Beatriz C. Felipe and Diana Reis 54 Hybrid Striped Bass as Aquaculture Candidate in Germany? Promising Performance Bu Potential for Invasive Behavior Andreas Müller-Belecke, Christa Thürmer and Marcel Böhm 59 Dynamics of Arachidonic Acid Transfer from Diet to Eggs in Red Drum Lee A. Fuiman and Cynthia K. Faulk 63 Zooplankton Displacement Volume — A Feeding Indicator in Extensive Carp Culture Markus Böhm, Christian Bauer, Karin Schlott, Martin Fichtenbauer, Günther Gratzl and Günther Schlott 67 Aquaculture Nutrition: Turning Challenges into Opportunities V. Tincy, P. Mishal, M. S. Akhtar and A. K. Pal (CONTENTS CONTINUED ON PAGE 2)
2 JUNE 2014 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG President’s Column I write this final column with both joy and sadness at the sunset of my WAS presidency. It has indeed been an honor and a privilege to serve you, the WAS membership, as president over these past 16 months. During my administration we have had three very successful chapter meetings: LACQUA13 in Villavicencio, Colombia in October, Asian Pacific Aquaculture 2013 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in December, and Aquaculture America 2014 in Seattle, Washington, USA this February, all of which I had the opportunity to attend and represent our Society. Additional Society outreach and service activities, including WAS-sponsored sessions, had me representing the WAS at the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture 2014 in February in Abu Dhabi, UAE and the American Fisheries Society-Mexico Chapter and Western Division Annual Meeting 2014 in April in Mazatlan, Mexico. I further represented WAS at the FEEDing Pakistan Aquaculture Conference in April 2014 in Lahore (the first ever aquaculture meeting in Pakistan), and the Oman Aquaculture Development Program May 5, 2013 in Muscat, Oman, and Isla Mujeres Aquaculture in June 2013 in Isla Mujeres, Mexico. With my travel agenda occupied for World Aquaculture 2014, Dr. Jay Parsons, a Past-President of WAS kindly offered to step in and give a WAS presidential address at Aquaculture Canada in June 2014 in New Brunswick, Canada. In conjunction with the WAS Affiliations Committee, chaired by Juan Pablo Lazo, we have planned a joint special symposium at this event on “The Effects of Climate Change on Aquaculture.” By the time this issue of World Aquaculture reaches you, this meeting will have already occurred. Two very important Society action items have arisen during my term. One is the development of a Secretariat position for each of the Asian Pacific and Latin American and Caribbean chapters of WAS. In addition, a review of the Journal of the World Aquaculture Society as a membership benefit is underway. Both items are in the final phases of development and analysis towards action that will be taken at the WAS Pre-Conference Board Meeting in Adelaide. Under the guidance and chairmanship of Kevan Main, Immediate Past-President of WAS, the WAS Elections Committee developed and ran an excellent slate of candidates for the 2014-2015 term. I wish to provide my sincere thanks to all candidates for their willingness to run and to congratulate the winners, Rebecca Lochmann (President Elect), Patricia Abelin (Secretary), and Carole Engle and Zuridah Merican (Directors). I look forward to welcoming them in Adelaide, and serving with them during my coming year on the Executive Committee. With my transition to Immediate Past-President at the WAS Annual Business Meeting in Adelaide, I thank my good friends Jimmy Avery and Juan Pablo Lazo for their kind service and support through various committees and boards over the past three years as they transition off the Board. I am very thankful for the friendship and service of Kevan Main, outgoing Immediate Past-President, and for her endless guidance and support. I welcome Graham Mair, who will take over the reigns as WAS President in Adelaide. Graham brings the ability and dedication that will be much needed over the next term to implement the developing Secretariats and JWAS activities and the new agenda items he will surely bring to the table. With that, I thank all of you wholeheartedly for the opportunity to serve you as WAS president for 2013-2014 and look forward to continued official and unofficial service to the Society. — Michael Schwarz, President Contents (continued) Society 2 President’s Column 3 Editor’s Note 4 USAS Report 4 Asian Pacific Chapter Report 5 Latin American and Caribbean Chapter Report 5 Korean Chapter Report 70 Conference Calendar 71 Future Conferences and Expositions 72 Advertisers’ Index 72 Membership Application Visit the WAS Online Store for books under $10! Check out recently published books on microalgal culture, biofouling, pond fertilization, health and diseases, behavior and more.
WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • JUNE 2014 3 Editor’s Note Regular readers of my editor’s note will know that climate change has been a recurring theme of these columns. I had not intended that this would be the case but the increasingly pressing need for urgent action has compelled me to give the issue regular attention. In the last few months, a number of reports have been released and events with global implications have occurred. In late March, Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report called Climate Change: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability that was seven years in the making. Then, in early May, the US Global Change Research Program issued its third National Climate Assessment, focusing on effects in the US. Both reports emphasize the message that climate change is happening now and that a considerable amount of future change is essentially locked in because of inherent lags in response to current greenhouse gas concentrations. Many changes are irreversible, even if action is taken now. Furthermore, the IPCC reports are inherently conservative in their predictions because every country must sign off on the findings. Recent experience suggests that IPCC projections underestimate the magnitude of climate change. Also in early May came reports from two independent studies indicating that the West Antarctic Ice Sheet is collapsing, with the ice sheet thinning from below caused by interaction with relatively warmer water. This will cause accumulated glacial ice to move faster into the sea, causing an anticipated rise in global sea levels by 60 cm within 200 years. The ice held behind this glacier will then move unimpeded to the sea, causing an additional sea level rise of 3 to 4 m. Greenland’s glaciers also appear to be more vulnerable to melting than previously anticipated. Taken together, a sea level rise of 3 m by the end of the century seems increasingly likely. Paleoclimatologists say that, in the history of the planet, the last time the atmosphere had the current levels of carbon dioxide, sea level was 20-30 m higher than it is now! One can’t help but think about the global infrastructure of coastal aquaculture ponds and other culture systems that are vulnerable to such substantial rises in sea level. A sea level rise of 3 m will result in the loss of 3 million hectares of land in China and more than 1 million hectares each in Vietnam, India, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, all major aquaculture producing nations. Sea level rise in places such as the deltas of the Yellow River and Pearl River in China and the Mekong River in Vietnam is exacerbated by groundwater extraction for aquaculture that leads to land subsidence, increasing apparent rates of sea level rise by a factor of 100. Aquaculture has been growing at a tremendous rate since the 1980s and needs to continue this growth to supply the increased demand for seafood associated with global population increases and the expansion of large middle classes in China and India. It now seems clear that continued global growth in aquaculture is jeopardized by sea level rise, just at the point where growth must continue to keep pace with demand. What will be the fate of coastal aquaculture infrastructure? Protection of coastal ponds from uncontrolled inundation will become increasingly urgent. There is now open discussion about building sea defenses to protect major coastal cities in the world but what about protecting the hundreds of thousands of hectares of coastal and river delta ponds used in aquaculture around continental margins worldwide? Although more unlikely, countries can abandon the most coastward ponds and start an orderly retreat from vulnerable coastal areas and move inland. Ultimate abandonment seems likely because sea level is rising inexorably and at some point there will be no other option. Given that protection or reestablishment of this infrastructure will require many decades and will be extremely costly, it seems prudent to begin this process now. At minimum, countries with coastal aquaculture need to begin not just planning but implementation of infrastructure protection measures. Of course, climate change will be disproportionately impact the most vulnerable segments of humanity, many of whom live in coastal areas. About 40 percent of the world’s population lives within 100 km of a coastline, many of which are rural or urban poor or otherwise marginalized. Aquaculture and smallscale fisheries provides important employment options for these populations of vulnerable poor. One can easily imagine scenarios of large-scale displacement from coastal areas and migrations to already-strained urban areas in developing countries. The prospects for social unrest, caused by the same underlying drivers of a lack of opportunity and a perception of hopelessness that initiated the Arab Spring, seem increasingly likely. The challenge before us seems immense, maybe impossible. All the same, action must be taken to adapt and mitigate the worst effects of climate change on aquaculture. One later chapter of the National Climate Assessment is called Decision Support: Connecting Science, Risk Perception and Decisions. It is perhaps here that aquaculture scientists may be able to make the greatest contribution. Technical information provided by aquaculture scientists can be integrated to inform actions and policy decisions to adapt and mitigate the effects of climate change. The broad aquaculture community can participate in identifying response options, assessing uncertainty, and clarify tradeoffs associated with various alternatives. Actions can be taken at many levels, such as a shrimp farm deciding to invest in higher pond levees, a provincial or national government developing resiliency or mitigation plans, or commitments of national governments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Decision support tools are now available to build a consensus for action. Although curbing emissions remains a longterm necessity, it is prudent to begin adapting and mitigating the effects of climate change on coastal aquaculture now. — John A. Hargreaves, Editor-in-Chief Climate Change is Here Now
4 JUNE 2014 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG The past few months have been very busy for all APC executive committee members. A lot has been happening to improve our system and to increase our visibility around the world. First, a lot of effort has been invested into creating a successful upcoming conference (World Aquaculture 2014) in Adelaide, Australia. We will have chapter board meetings before and after the event. We have also been working on preparations for World Aquaculture 2015, which will be held on Jeju Island, South Korea. For the APC meeting in 2016, we have chosen Indonesia to be the location. After careful consideration, we decided that Indonesia was the most suitable location for our 2016 conference because aquaculture is increasing rapidly in the country. In 2014, the Indonesian Fisheries Department estimates that shrimp production will reach 600,000 t, while Thailand continues to struggle with the impacts of EMS. In early May, we had a meeting in Indonesia CHAPTER REPORTS This This is my first column as President of USAS and I would like to kick off by thanking everyone who attended and made Aquaculture America (AA) 2014 in Seattle, WA such a success and so much fun! As always, it was great to see so many friends and familiar faces that I only get to see once a year at this event. I would also like to recognize the current USAS Executive Board and the WAS Home Office for their time, work and commitment to USAS and US aquaculture in general. These board members are working hard (all volunteer) for the USAS membership by finding ways to continually improve the value of USAS membership and make good on our commitment to provide a forum for the exchange of aquaculture information and sponsor meetings and workshops. Many thanks to each of you — great work! At the USAS board meeting in Seattle, we discussed several ways to promote membership. The Promotion and Membership Committee is working on ways to increase industry participation in USAS and become more engaged with regional aquaculture conferences and meetings. USAS was a sponsor of the 2014 North Central Regional Aquaculture Center (NCRAC) conference held in Toledo, OH and we want to continue and expand these conference sponsorships. The board is also exploring ideas for workshops offered in conjunction with the Aquaculture America conference in the years when the statistics course is not being offered. The board also discussed ways to increase support for students interested in aquaculture. As part of this effort, one USAS goal this year is to increase the number of student awards and the monetary value of each award. We aim to make awards as competitive as possible and meaningful in assisting students to offset travel and other related costs (~$1500) associated with attending an Aquaculture America conference. If you or your company is interested in sponsoring a student award please let me know as soon as possible. The student activities committee is also brainstorming ideas on ways to increase connections at Aquaculture America among students, vendors, professors and industry. How to successfully engage the power of social networking for USAS continues to stymie me — an undeniable sign that I may not be as hip as I think, or perhaps have too much going on! USAS students should be on the lookout for a survey on this topic — please provide feedback so that we can help create a forum that is exciting, interactive, informative and useful. Remember to check USAS out on AquacultureHub (www. aquaculturehub.org/page/usas). As the year moves along USAS is seeking nominations for officers and board members. We need nominations for President-Elect, Secretary/ Treasurer and two Member-at-Large positions. Nominees must be USAS members in good standing. If you would like more information on these positions or how to nominate someone, please contact me or visit the USAS website (www. was.org/USAS/); the bylaws are under the organization tab. Also, don’t forget about USAS’ professional achievement awards — Distinguished Service Award, Lifetime Achievement Award and Distinguished Early Career Award. Please get your nominations ready. As I write this column I am preparing for the WAS meeting in Adelaide, Australia. I am excited to represent USAS at this international meeting and revisit the country where I grew up. It’s always fun to look back — which reminds me, USAS will celebrate 25 YEARS in 2015! I cannot think of a better place than New Orleans to celebrate that milestone. Cheers! — Kathleen Hartman, President U.S. Aquaculture Society 2014 – 2015 USAS EXECUTIVE BOARD • President: Kathleen Hartman • President-Elect: Mike Denson • Vice-President: David Cline • Secretary/Treasurer: Reg Blaylock • Immediate Past-President: Kevin Hopkins • Members at Large: Steven Rawles, Chris Bentley, Luke Roy, Amy Stone • Student Liaison (ex-officio): Matthew Hawkyard • Student Apprentice (ex-officio): Jonathan Van Senten (CONTINUED ON PAGE 72) Asian Pacific Chapter
WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • JUNE 2014 5 CHAPTER REPORTS Ik-Kyo Cheong has completed his excellent service as the president of the Korean Chapter of WAS in November 2013 and I have become chapter president. Farewell Ik-Kyo, for your excellent job as chapter president from 2011-2013. On behalf of all members of the Korean Chapter, I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your incredible job and contributions to the Chapter. As the past chapter president, I am also expecting your help to host World Aquaculture 2015 in Jeju as an organizing committee member. The Korean Federation of Fisheries Science and Technology and Societies (KOFFST) International Conference 2013 was held on November 22, 2013 in Busan, Korea under the theme of “Climate Change and the Trends in Demand and Supply of Aquatic Products.” This event was co-organized by Korean Society of Fisheries and Aquatic Science (KOSFAS), Ichthyological Society of Korea (ISK), Korean Society of Fish Pathology (KSFP), Korean Society of Fisheries Technology (KSFT), and Malacological Society of Korea (MSK) and supported by Busan Metropolitan City. The conference was attended by about 500 participants from 28 different countries. There were 74 oral and 331 poster presentations by scientists from Korea and other countries. Three keynote speeches were delivered by three distinguished invited speakers, Mr. Son Jae Hak (Vice-Minister of Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Republic of Korea) on “The Direction of Oceans and Fisheries Policies in the Era of Climate Change,” Dr. Wang Qingtain (Former Director, Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, China) on “The Status, Challenges and Prospects of Mariculture Industry in China,” and Dr. Robert Mason Hughes (President of American Fisheries Society) on “Bioassessment in Water Resources Management to Study of Global and Regional States and Change.” Outstanding invited and general speakers from Korea and other countries gave presentations on various topics in five workshop sessions organized by each society of KOFFST including KOSFAS, ISK, KSFP, KSFT and MSK. This international conference provided an excellent opportunity to share understanding and knowledge on the effects of climate change on global fisheries and aquaculture. — Albert Kwang-Sik Choi, President It It has been a very active year for the aquaculture sector in the Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) region. Important plans are cooking in many countries and hopefully we all can participate in building the industry that we deserve and need. During May 28-29, in Mexico City, parliament members in charge of fisheries and aquaculture committees of several LAC countries will participate in a regional meeting coordinated by FAO in conjunction with the Mexican government. I hope this is the first of many meetings targeted to promote cooperation and better understanding among all countries in our region. I am fully confident that, working together, we can achieve a lot more than acting individually. We share many problems and needs and finding regional solutions will be the most cost-effective way in many cases. Changing topics to a more internal matter; during the past election of the new WAS Board, several members of our chapter agreed to stand for election and asked me to support them. I sent an email to the LACC membership introducing the members who asked for support. These members have proposals to improve the relationship between the Chapter and its members. This email was strongly criticized by many, including people who are not members of this Chapter. I think it is my right as LACC President to support members who ask for support and have proposals. It is the least I can do. I have always been open to receiving emails from any chapter member and would share with all members anything that would be of interest, even if it does not reflect my personal point of view. Please fill free to send anything; the more participation we have from you, the more the chapter will grow. Finally and most dearly, during Aquaculture America 2014 in Seattle we had the opportunity to sign a cooperation agreement with Panorama Acuícola Magazine to jointly organize LACQUA 14. This event will take place in Guadalajara, Mexico from 4 to 7 November. Guadalajara is known for its amazing beauty and excellent weather year round, and will be the perfect location to host LACQUA 14. Once again we will have the opportunity to interact with aquaculture experts from around the globe but, most importantly, we will be able to exchange experiences among the many producers from the region. This mixture of scientists, producers and decision makers is exactly what is enabling LACQUA to position itself as the most important aquaculture event in the LAC region. Remember that LACQUA encourages the presentation of papers in Spanish and Portuguese, although English papers are also accepted. So, mark your calendar and pack your bags to visit the homeland of tequila and mariachi music – Guadalajara. — Antonio Garza de Yta, President Latin American and Caribbean Chapter ABOVE. Participants of the KOFFST International Conference 2013. Korean Chapter
6 JUNE 2014 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG Master Conferences - Tradeshow - Business Rounds All info on: www. fiacui.com www.panoramaacuicola.com www.was.org www.marevent.com - info@marevent.com
WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • JUNE 2014 7 The second meeting of the Latin American and Caribbean Chapter of the World Aquaculture Society (LACQUA14) will be held in Guadalajara, Mexico from 4-7 November 2014. The conference will take place concurrently with the 9th Foro Internacional de Acuicultura (FIACUI). The theme of the event is “Establishing the Best Strategies for Aquaculture Development in Latin America.” The organizing team, headed by representatives of the Latin American and Caribbean Chapter of the World Aquaculture Society (LACC-WAS) and the magazine Panorama Acuicola, expects more than 1000 professionals from the aquaculture sector to attend, including over 500 scientists, researchers, teachers and students from leading universities and research centers. This event will bring together aquaculture farmers, entrepreneurs and experts from throughout the entire Latin American region and the world. The organizing committee invites all aquaculturists of the region to participate in the series of activities that comprise the event. This event will include a high-quality scientific conference, including a producer program with the latest technical information. Participants will be able to attend several keynote lectures offered by world renowned experts, and exchange research ideas and analyze business options with an important array of global companies that will be present. Over 100 booths are expected in the trade show. This event will allow participants to share scientific advances from research, the latest technologies, and an overview of the actual situation LACQUA 14 To Convene in Guadalajara and challenges of Latin American aquaculture. All species and subjects will be discussed. The goal is to offer possible solutions to problems that the sector is experiencing and to promote sharing of knowledge on the aquaculture of shrimp, tilapia, shellfish and other species and to discuss economics, health issues, marketing, etc. The main topics for today’s food industry – especially for aquaculture and fisheries – is a focus on genetic engineering (how to achieve greater production through better performing stock); distribution capacity (how to get products to where they are needed in a timely manner); and promotion and marketing (through branding). LACQUA 14’s Conference Program will be divided into subtopics that will be defined in coordination with producers, research centers and universities, and through ongoing consultation with supporting government officials. The event will take place in rooms equipped with professional audio and video systems. Simultaneous translation will be provided, should it be required. Summaries of lectures will be provided on interactive flash drives, so attendees will have a permanent record for consultation. The World Aquaculture Society (WAS) organizes several events worldwide every year. LACQUA14 will be the second event of its type in the Latin American and the Caribbean region. The main languages of the conference will be Spanish and Portuguese and abstracts will be accepted in these languages as well as in English. The deadline to submit an abstract is 15 August 2014. For the latest conference information, registration forms, and to submit an abstract, visit the WAS website (www.was.org).
8 JUNE 2014 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has released its most-recent global review of the “State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture.” The report covers information, statistics and trends in global fisheries and aquaculture in 2012 and is subtitled “Opportunities and Challenges.” Here are some select highlights about aquaculture from the report, which can be viewed in full at the FAO website (www.fao.org). World aquaculture production continues to grow and now provides almost half of all fish for human consumption. In 2013, global foodfish production from aquaculture was 70.5 million t and seaweed production was 26.1 million t. In 2013, China alone produced 43.5 million t of foodfish and 13.5 million t of aquatic algae, accounting for over 60 percent of total aquaculture production. Farmed foodfish contributed a record 42.2 percent of the 158 million t of fish produced by capture fisheries (including for nonfood uses) and aquaculture in 2012. Asia as a whole has been producing more farmed fish than wild catch since 2008. Worldwide, 15 countries produced 92.7 percent of all farmed food fish in 2012. Among them, Chile and Egypt became millionton producers in 2012. The top five producers (China, India, Viet Nam, Indonesia, and Bangladesh) account for about 80 percent of production. Among the leading producers, the major groups of species farmed and the farming systems vary greatly. Aquaculture output by some industrialized regional major producers, most notably the United States of America, Spain, France, Italy, Japan and the Republic of Korea, has fallen in recent years. A decline in finfish production is common to all these countries. The availability of fish imported from other countries where production costs are relatively low is seen as a major reason for such production declines. The resulting fish supply gap has been one of the drivers encouraging production expansion in other countries with a strong focus on export-oriented species. In 2012, global production of non-fed species from aquaculture (excluding aquatic plants) was 20.5 million t. The share of non-fed species in total farmed food fish production declined further from 33.5 percent in 2010 to 30.8 percent in 2012, reflecting a relatively stronger growth in the farming of fed species. Although finfish species grown in mariculture represent only 12.6 percent of the total farmed finfish production by volume, their value (US$23.5 billion) represents 26.9 percent of the total value of all farmed finfish species. In 2012, farmed crustaceans accounted for 9.7 percent (6.4 million t) of foodfish aquaculture production by volume but 22.4 percent (US$30.9 billion) by value. Mollusc production (15.2 million t) was more than double that of crustaceans, but its value was only half that of crustaceans. As of 2012, there were 567 species produced in aquaculture. The farming of tilapias is the most widespread type of aquaculture in the world. Highlights from the State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2014 Inland aquaculture of finfish now accounts for 57.9 percent of farmed foodfish production globally. Freshwater fish farming makes the greatest direct contribution to the supply of affordable protein food, particularly for people still in poverty in developing countries. This subsector is also expected to be the lead player in achieving long-term food and nutrition security and in meeting the increased demand for foodfish by the growing population in many developing countries in the coming decades. More people than ever before rely on fisheries and aquaculture for food and as a source of income. Per capita fish consumption has soared from 10 kg in the 1960s to more than 19 kg in 2012, driven by higher demand from a growing population, rising incomes, and more efficient distribution channels. Fish now accounts for almost 17 percent of the global population’s intake of animal protein — in some coastal and island countries it can top 70 percent. The aggregate FAO Fish Price Index reached a record high in October 2013. Fisheries and aquaculture support the livelihoods of 10-12 percent of the world’s population. Since 1990 employment in the sector has grown at a faster rate than the world’s population and in 2012 provided jobs for some 60 million people engaged in capture fisheries and aquaculture. Fish remains among the most traded food commodities worldwide, worth almost $130 billion in 2012 — a figure which likely will continue to increase. In 2012, 200 countries reported exports of fish and fishery products. Trade in fish and fishery products is especially important for developing nations, in some cases worth over half of the total value of traded commodities. Developing countries are boosting their share in the fishery trade — 54 percent of total fishery exports by value in 2012 and more than 60 percent by quantity (live weight). China is the largest exporter of fish but is now the third largest importer, after the USA and Japan. Food chain traceability is increasingly a requirement in major fish markets, especially in the wake of recent scandals involving the mislabelling of food products. FAO provides technical guidelines on certification and ecolabelling which can help producers demonstrate that fish has been produced in a properly run aquaculture facility. The FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, nearly 20 years on, serves as an internationally accepted benchmark and framework for the sustainable use of aquatic resources. The ecosystem approach to aquaculture (EAA) and spatial planning are becoming important in supporting implementation of the Code, particularly with respect to social license and environmental integrity. FAO is also promoting “Blue Growth” as a coherent framework for the sustainable, integrated and socioeconomically sensitive management of oceans and wetlands, focusing on capture fisheries, aquaculture, ecosystem services, trade and social protection of coastal communities.
WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • JUNE 2014 9 World aquaculture is dominated by the use of simple earthen ponds. Unlike other common aquaculture systems, ponds provide many of the resources needed to grow aquatic animals in one self-contained unit. The main resource is phytoplankton that use solar energy to drive photosynthesis. Phytoplankton produce new organic matter, generate oxygen as a byproduct of photosynthesis, and assimilate carbon dioxide, ammonia, and other mineral nutrients from the water. Algal photosynthesis provides three essential resources for aquaculture production: 1) potential food for cultured animals, 2) oxygen to support life, and 3) treatment of wastes so that they do not accumulate to toxic levels. Relying upon sunlight to drive photosynthesis to maintain water quality represents the lowest cost and most sustainable approach to fish or shrimp production, which explains the popularity of ponds as aquatic animal production systems. However, utilization of solar energy comes at a cost and with certain limitations. The capacity of ponds to treat wastes— and, therefore, the upper limit to aquaculture production—is ultimately limited by the finite energy available from sunlight and the relatively low photosynthetic efficiency of algae (only 1 to 2 percent of incident solar energy is converted to chemical Partitioned Pond Aquaculture Systems Craig S. Tucker, David E. Brune and Eugene L. Torrans energy stored in algal biomass). Aquaculture production per unit area in algal ponds is therefore significantly lower than that achievable in systems using energy subsidies (in the form of feed) from externally supplied fossil fuels. Another consequence of low photosynthetic efficiency is that relatively large areas are needed for waste treatment relative to the water area (or volume) needed simply to confine the cultured animals (Sidebar). Aquatic animals moving freely within traditional aquaculture ponds are therefore distributed at much lower densities than in more intensively managed culture systems, leading to a number of management inefficiencies. Aquaculturists have proposed or developed alternative outdoor culture systems that attempt to address the limitations and inefficiencies of traditional aquaculture ponds. In this article, we describe our personal involvement with the development of some of those alternatives. These systems have one design feature in common: the water body is physically divided into areas that allow better control of certain processes, such as confining fish, producing oxygen, treating wastes, or culturing secondary species. Because various ecosystem functions are physically separated, we call these systems “partitioned ponds.” Aquaculturists have proposed or developed alternative outdoor culture systems that attempt to address the limitations and inefficiencies of traditional aquaculture ponds. Partitioned ponds are physically divided into areas that allow better control over confining fish, producing oxygen, treating wastes or culturing secondary species. SPATIAL REQUIREMENT FOR FISH CONFINEMENT AND WASTE TREATMENT Channel catfish can be grown in raceways at biomass densities exceeding 135 kg/m3, assuming that water flow is sufficient to provide dissolved oxygen and remove wastes. In a 1-m-deep pond, 135 kg/m3 is equivalent to holding 1,350 kg of catfish in a 10-m2 area. Consider this as an estimate of the ‘living space’ needed by pond-grown catfish. The amount of ammonia produced by fish can be estimated from feed consumption, ammonia production rate, and fish biomass. If 1,350 kg of fish are fed 2 percent of body weight per day and ammonia excretion is 35 g N/kg of feed consumed, Ammonia production = (35 g N/kg feed)(27 kg feed/day) = 945 g N/day. Most ammonia produced by fish is initially assimilated by phytoplankton as a nitrogen source for growth. The nitrogen assimilation rate by phytoplankton can be estimated from the rate of carbon fixation in photosynthesis and the average ratio of carbon to nitrogen in algal tissue (6C:1N by mass). Phytoplankton photosynthetic rates in warm, unmixed, nutrient-rich waters range from less than 1 to more than 6 g C/ m2 per days. Using 3 g C/m2 per day as an optimistic carbon fixation rate provides an estimated nitrogen assimilation rate of (3 g C/m2 per day)(1 g N/6 g C) = 0.5 g N/m2 per day. Therefore, the pond area required to remove ammonia excreted by 1,350 kg of channel catfish is (945 g N/day) ÷ (0.5 g N/m2 per day) = 1,890 m2. The pond area needed as living space for 1,350 kg of channel catfish (10 m2) is about 200 times smaller than the pond area needed to remove ammonia produced the fish (1,890 m2). (CONTINUED ON PAGE 10)
10 JUNE 2014 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG Partitioned Catfish Ponds in Arkansas Eugene L. Torrans Pioneering catfish farmers used ponds of all sizes—from less than 0.5-ha to a giant 65-ha pond built by R.L. Thompson and W.F. Anderson in 1957—but most ponds ranged from 15 to 30 ha. Ponds were so large that the only way to harvest fish was to draw down the water level until fish became concentrated and were captured with a small seine. These early catfish ponds were difficult to manage but inexpensive to build. In 1972, two Mississippi State University economists analyzed cost-size relationships for catfish ponds and pronounced 8-ha ponds to be the best compromise among construction and maintenance costs and management ease (Foster and Waldrop 1972). These ponds could be harvested by seining without water drawdown. The 8-ha pond became the standard pond size in Mississippi for the next 30 years. Although the pond size recommended by Foster and Waldrop was less than half the size of most existing catfish ponds in 1972, an 8-ha pond is—by any current measure—a large, difficult-tomanage aquaculture production system. Inefficiencies in feeding, harvesting, and protecting fish from predators are significant limitations, but the most serious problem with large ponds is the difficulty in maintaining adequate dissolved oxygen concentration. Polyculture Catfish ponds are ideal ecosystems for polyculture. Catfish eat manufactured feed, which enriches the water and stimulates high rates of primary and secondary productivity. This natural production is largely unused by catfish, so adding plankton- or detritus-feeding fish to the pond improves ecological efficiency by making better use of feed nutrients that would otherwise be wasted in catfish monoculture. Fish production based on unutilized natural foods could increase farm income by generating an additional crop at little extra expense. Arkansas fish farmers were among the first in the United States to appreciate the potential of pond polyculture. Initial foodfish aquaculture development in Arkansas centered on growing bigmouth buffalo Ictiobus cyprinellus, a regionally popular food fish. The market demand for buffalofish was not great, however, and Arkansas fish farmers began incorporating channel catfish in polyculture with buffalofish. During the mid-1970s, interest in polyculture was further stimulated by a wave of Peace Corps aquaculture volunteers returning to the United States from assignments in Africa and Asia. These young aquaculturists had experience spawning and raising tilapias, Chinese carps and Indian major and minor carps, and appreciated the ecological efficiencies and practical benefits of polyculture. In practice, application of polyculture in commercial catfish ponds was difficult. Although overall fish yields could be doubled or tripled by adding plankton-eating fish to catfish ponds, largescale marketing of secondary species was problematic. Most candidate polyculture species contain intramuscular bones—a significant marketing impediment in the United States, where the preferred fish product is boneless fillets. From the catfish farmer’s perspective, the greatest disadvantage of polyculture was the additional time and labor required to harvest and sort fish by species for marketing. Until recently, almost all channel catfish were grown in a multiple-batch cropping system, with ponds containing fish that ranged from 20-g fingerlings to 1-kg foodfish (Tucker et al. 2004). Ponds were harvested several times a year to remove foodfish (~0.7 to 0.9 kg) and fingerlings were periodically added to replace harvested foodfish. Ponds remained in production for several years without draining. Most polyculture species require at least 2 years to reach market size, meaning they would have to be sorted by hand and returned to the pond several times a year until market size was achieved. This was clearly impractical on large commercial farms. Farmers who were successful at raising and selling other species separated them with some difficulty from their catfish and delivered them as live fish to ethnic markets in larger cities. Partitioned Ponds as an Alternative Production System The potential economic advantages of raising more than one species of fish in the same water body stimulated interest in developing ways to modify ponds to make them easier to manage and to accommodate polyculture. In 1982, I conceived a production system that appeared to solve the problem of sorting and separating species in polyculture. I proposed dividing an existing pond with an earthen embankment (Fig. 1). The embankment would have two open channels or culverts fitted with screens to prevent fish from moving from one side to the other. Catfish would be stocked in one half and one or more secondary species stocked in the other half. Electric paddlewheel aerators would be placed in the open channels for aeration and to circulate water between the two sections. Hand-sorting of species would be eliminated because catfish and the secondary species would be physically separated and could be grown under independent production periods. The main purpose of the system was to facilitate polyculture, so I called it the “Polyculture Production System” or PPS. The concept was published in Arkansas Aquafarming (Torrans 1984) and I received an Innovation Award from the Catfish Farmers of America for the idea. Although my initial concept indicated a 50:50 split of the two sides with catfish stocked at twice the normal rate, I speculated that, “Given a rapid enough water exchange, catfish could, in theory, be confined at raceway densities.” I proposed this concept to Kelly and Harold Farmer, of Edgar Farmer and Sons, in Dumas, Arkansas, in 1982. They divided a 12-ha pond into approximately 3-ha and 8-ha sections. Water was circulated at about 7.5 m3/min between sections through a large culvert using a screw-type pump. Channel catfish were stocked in the 3-ha section and bighead carp Aristichthys nobilis and bighead × silver carp Hypophthalmicthys molitrix hybrids in the larger section. The system was used for two years until accumulation of large amounts of sediment in the catfish section made harvest difficult and forced the Farmers to consider alternative designs. Their solution to problems related to sediment accumulation was to dramatically intensify production by confining catfish in concrete raceways. Their interest in raceway culture of catfish was stimulated by the success of Leo Ray, owner of Fish Breeders of Idaho, near Hagerman, Idaho. Leo Ray was growing channel
WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • JUNE 2014 11 TOP, FIGURE 1. The original drawing of the Partitioned Polyculture System as it appeared in the 1984 issue of Aquafarming, the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service newsletter. BOTTOM, FIGURE 2. Raceways at Edgar Farmer and Sons fish farm, in Dumas, Arkansas, in 1986. Water from an 8-ha “header” pond flowed through the raceways and discharged into a series of two linked ponds. Water was then lifted 3 m using large pumps into a series of ponds that eventually flowed by gravity back into the “header” pond. catfish, blue catfish Ictalurus furcatus, and tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus and O. mossambicus) in a raceway system supplied with geothermal water from artesian wells (Losordo et al. 2004). Fish Breeders of Idaho continues to produce warmwater fish in this facility. The Farmers built their raceway system in 1986 as a means of better controlling production (Fig. 2). Kelly Farmer summarized his motivation by saying, “A pond has control of you. I wanted to manage growout better” (Mattei 1984). The system consisted of 40 raceways (8 parallel raceway systems, each with 5 raceways in a series) provided with gravityflow water from an 8-ha “header” pond. Raceways discharged effluent into a large pond and water flowed into a second large pond before being lifted 3 meters into the highestelevation pond on the farm by high-volume (83 m3/min) pumps powered by two diesel engines. The engines used 42 L/min of fuel, but diesel fuel cost only $0.079/L when the system was built. Water then flowed through three other ponds through culverts before being pumped to the header pond. The seven ponds tied into the raceway system totaled 44 ha. The raceway system produced about 220,000 kg of channel catfish annually. A variety of other species, including bighead carp, silver carp, and paddlefish Polyodon spathula, were grown in the system’s large reservoir ponds. Several ponds were also stocked with channel catfish and produced an additional 122 t annually, for a total annual net catfish production of approximately 7.7 t/ha for the entire system. In contrast to Leo Ray’s geothermal water supply, water temperatures in the Arkansas pond-raceway systems varied greatly throughout the year, from more than 30°C in summer to less than 10°C in winter. Channel catfish grew little, if at all, for several months during winter and cold temperatures predisposed fish to infectious diseases. As such, catfish could not be overwintered in raceways without large losses and could not be stocked in raceways for growout before mid-May. However, the concept showed promise because fish grew quickly—100-g fish stocked in mid-May reached marketsize in one growing season. Dick Pratt and his son Jon built a similar system of raceways and linked ponds in 1988 at Beouf River Fish Farm, Eudora, Arkansas. The Pratt’s system consisted of 108 raceways (36 parallel series of 3 raceways in a series) linked to seven ponds totaling 55 ha. Water flowed through the system at 115 m3/min. As in the Farmers’ system, channel catfish were grown using manufactured feed in raceways and blue tilapia O. aureus, paddlefish, silver carp, or bighead carp were grown in ponds receiving catfish wastes and with abundant natural foods. The Pratt system operated as described only for a few years, suffering some of the same problems encountered by Kelly and Edgar Farmer. Annual net catfish production from raceways was about 320 t, which, when divided by the pond area used in the system, is roughly the same achieved in well-managed traditional ponds at that time (5-6 t/ha). Although Arkansas farmers were pioneers in partitioned pond aquaculture, neither of the two linked pond-raceway systems remains in operation. Frequent disease outbreaks and growing-season limitations related to lack of temperature control contributed to poor profitability. But the primary economic limitation was caused by the flat topography of the Mississippi River floodplain where those farms were located. Achieving gravity flow through the system of linked ponds and raceways required large volumes of water to be pumped against considerable hydraulic head (~3 m). The concept made sense in an era of low energy costs, but when faced with rapidly increasing fuel costs, the systems were abandoned. The relatively high hydraulic head was a common feature of those early systems. This limitation can be contrasted with Leo Ray’s hillside raceways supplied with geothermal artesian water (no head considerations) and the partitioned aquaculture system and its derivative, the splitpond, where water is cycled through the system against very low hydraulic head. (CONTINUED ON PAGE 12)
12 JUNE 2014 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG The Partitioned Aquaculture System David E. Brune My involvement with the partitioned pond concept consisted of experiences and interactions with a number of engineers, aquaculturists and producers over 30 years. As an assistant professor of Aquacultural Engineering, beginning in 1978 at the University of California, Davis, I became aware of William Oswald’s work at Berkeley with a “high-rate algal pond” for municipal wastewater treatment. His work stimulated my thinking about using photosynthetic systems to treat aquaculture wastewater. In 1980 Benard Colvin visited Davis, where he presented a seminar on his experiences with the Puerto Peñasco (Mexico) shrimp culture project. The culture system at Puerto Peñasco consisted of small raceways for growing penaeid shrimp at annual yields equivalent to 10 to 20 t/ha. At the time, typical fish and shellfish aquaculture annual yields from ponds were roughly 2 to 4 t/ha. The increased production potential was made possible by pumping clean seawater from shallow saline wells into raceways at rates needed to maintain good water quality. Water exiting the raceways was discharged to sandy lagoons, ultimately seeping into the Gulf of California. Obviously, such discharge would not be a sustainable practice on a larger scale. At this point I first got the notion to combine shrimp or fish raceway culture with Oswald’s high-rate pond for water treatment and reuse. By 1982 I had moved to Pennsylvania State University, where I worked on a variety of wastewater-treatment system designs. I was interested in exploring fish culture integrated with some kind of zero-discharge water treatment. Working with students in the Penn State Agricultural Engineering and the Environmental Resource Management departments, I developed a new design for a rotating biological contactor that we installed in a greenhouseenclosed trout raceway located at the Northeast Fisheries Center in Lamar, Pennsylvania. We successfully demonstrated zerodischarge trout culture using this bacterial technique, but it was obvious that capital and operating costs of these systems could not compete with conventional flow-through raceway aquaculture. In 1987, I relocated to Clemson University in South Carolina and installed the first operating system fully utilizing algal growth as the basis of aquaculture waste treatment. I called this approach the “Partitioned Aquaculture System,” or PAS, because it consisted of separating, or partitioning, raceway fish culture (requiring only 5 percent of water surface area) from the algal-driven water-treatment process. Initial work was targeted at reducing an environmental impact of aquaculture by reducing or eliminating discharge of pond effluent to public waters (Brune et al. 1999). The PAS Concept Optimizing a photosynthetically supported fish-culture system required a radical departure from traditional pond design. Because fish need only a small portion of the pond area to live and grow, the system could use raceways to confine animals so they would be easy to feed, harvest and protect from predators. Also, by confining fish at high density, they became the dominate consumers of dissolved oxygen in the raceway, making localized aeration in the raceway more cost-effective than in traditional ponds where the standing crop of fish often represents less than 25 percent of the total oxygen demand. Raceways were coupled to a high-rate algal pond, optimized for algal productivity (Brune et al. 2003, 2004). Maintaining high algal productivity rates, while simultaneously stabilizing algal density and controlling algal species composition, are the keys to greater aquaculture production in the PAS compared to traditional ponds. Pond aquaculture production is ultimately limited by the rate at which ammonia and carbon dioxide—two potentially toxic byproducts of aquatic animal metabolism—are removed from the system. In outdoor systems, phytoplankton remove ammonia and carbon dioxide from water to support algal growth. The waste-treatment capacity of ponds (and therefore the upper limits on fish or shrimp production potential) can be increased by improving conditions for algal growth because carbon dioxide and ammonia assimilation rates are proportional to phytoplankton productivity. Net primary productivity depends on water temperature, LEFT, FIGURE 3. The first four, 100-m2 prototype PAS units installed at in 1989 at Clemson University. The slow-rotating paddlewheel circulated water through the fishholding raceways on the right and the algal basin on the left. RIGHT, FIGURE 4. Six, 0.13-ha PAS units installed 1994 at Clemson University.
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