World Aquaculture December 2018

WWW.WA S.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • DECEMBER 2018 65 ( C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 6 6 ) waters as a cheap and easy way to achieve food security (Bakiu et al. 2015). This experience formed a good base to develop fish farming and to establish food preferences for consumers in the highland areas and providing nutrition sources in areas with a scarcity of marine fish and high levels of poverty (Bakiu et al. 2015). Twenty years ago, the aquaculture of marine species was less developed in comparison to freshwater species, which was mainly represented by carps and trout grown in pond and raceway systems. Floating cage farming of gilthead seabream and European seabass started in 2002, represented by two marine cage farms situated in the Ionian Sea. From that time, so many changes have happened in marine aquaculture but unfortunately there have been no updates about the situation with marine cage aquaculture after 16 years of development. For this reason, based on data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Water Administration, we made a comparative analyses to show how promising marine aquaculture can be for the future economic and social development of Albania. The area of study is represented by the Ionian coastal areas of southern Albania (Fig. 1). Farms are obliged by law to report all production information annually to the Directorate of Fisheries and Aquaculture Service (DFAS). This directorate at the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Water Administration was created just four years ago. Previously all statistics were collected by representatives of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism. The available data about marine aquaculture production provided by DFAS corresponds to 2004-2017 for aquaculture farms located in Saranda (including Himara) and Vlora. Production data were analyzed to determine volume and market value. Marine Cage Farming in Albania Geography of Production There are 16 floating sea cage farms in Albania that specialize in growing gilthead seabream and European seabass. These farms are located in Vlora Bay (near the Karaburun peninsula), Saranda (in Ksamil) and Himara (Porto Palermo). The same production technologies used in Greece and Turkey are installed in these areas, represented by nursery cages of 3 m × 3 m and circular grow-out cages of 13 m and 19 m diameter (Fig. 1). The minimum depth where cages are located is 20 m. There is also an Italian company which is installing offshore cages near Karaburun peninsula. Gener- ally, the fish density ranges from 10-15 kg/m 3 in marine cages. The FCR is less than 2.0 and in some farms it is sometimes 1.6, which shows that experienced specialists are managing these marine farms. Production began in Vlora Bay in 2004 with seven licensed companies with 63 cages, resulting in a production of around 220 t (Cardia and Lovatelli 2007). Vlora Bay is the most productive region for gilthead seabream and European seabass (Fig. 2). Production began in 2007 in Saranda and Himara. In 2017, production in Vlora Bay was eight times greater than in Saranda and Himara. Marine aquaculture production increased slowly (1.5×/yr) from 2004 until 2009, but then doubled from 2009 to 2011, reaching a maximum of 2,538 t in 2012. Production decreased rapidly after 2012, especially from 2013 to 2014. From 2014 until 2017, production increased again, but at a lower rate than the increase between 2009 and 2011. From 2009 until 2012, production growth of gilthead seabream and European seabass from the Andromeda Marine Aquaculture company in the Saranda region was “explosive,” reaching a maximum production volume of 900 t in 2012. Maximum production in Saranda and Himara was reached in 2012 and there was no significant change in production in Sranada and Himara from 2014 to 2017 (Fig. 3). In Vlora Bay, the Orata company reached the maximum production volume for both species in 2013. In contrast to Saranda and Himara, production in Vlora Bay increased rapidly between 2015 until 2017. In Albania, the total production of gilthead seabream was roughly two times greater than the production of European seabass in each year (Figs. 2 and 3), although feed conversion ratios for seabass (2.0) are lower than those for seabream (2.3) (Myrseth 2014). The preference of growing more gilthead seabream than European seabass is related to problems with diseases that have a greater effect on European seabass (e.g., nodaviruses). Vaccine treatment increases production costs of European seabass (Christofilogiannis 2013), although the sales price of European seabass is greater than those of other marine aquaculture species (FAO 2017). In Vlora Bay, farmers prefer production of gilthead seabream, whereas in Saranda and Himara, farmers prefer production of European seabass. Although the recent development trend is promising, sea cage farming is still developing (Fig. 4). The sector needs time to develop FIGURE 1. Localization of Albania in the Mediterranean basin (right), areas (fish symbol) with sea cages for growing gilthead seabream and European seabass in Albania (center) and cages from each of the areas (left). FIGURE 2. Production volume of gilthead seabream and European seabass in Vlora Bay from 2004-2017 (left) and the proportion of total production represented by these two species (right).