SITE SELECTION AND CARRYING CAPACITY FOR MARINE FINFISH AND SEAWEEDS AQUACULTURE IN GERUPUK BAY, WEST NUSA TENGGARA, INDONESIA

I Nyoman Radiarta* and Erlania
 
 Center for Fisheries Research and Development
Jl. Ragunan No. 20 Pasar minggu, Jakarta Selatan, Indonesia 12540
radiarta@yahoo.com

It is now widely recognized that further aquaculture developments need to be
planned and designed in a more responsible manner that minimize as much as possible negative social and environmental impacts.. With respect to the development of aquaculture, one of the most contentious issues is concept of carrying capacity. Assessment of carrying capacity is one of the most important tools for technical assessment of not only the environmental sustainability of aquaculture since it is not limited to farm or population sizes issues but also can be applied to ecosystem, watershed, and global scales. Carrying capacity work has focused on determinations of production carrying capacity, which is the maximum sustainable yield of cultured organisms that can be produced within an area. This study was conducted to identify the most suitable sites and to calculate carrying capacity for marine finfish cage and seaweeds aquaculture development in Gerupuk Bay, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia.

Site selection for seaweed aquaculture was classified about 364 Ha as most suitable area from the total potential area about 829 ha. This area occupaid almost all centers of the bay that has ideal conditions for the criteria examined  (Figure 1). While for marine finfish cage culture the most suitable area was indentified about 374 ha.

Carrying capacity for seaweed aquaculture activities in Gerupuk Bay using raft techniques was 339.5 ha; with the number of units which can be supported for seaweed aquaculture activity was 4658 raft units. Assuming all area was utilized then total seaweeds production using raft is accounted for 2853 tons. Carrying capacity estimation based on the total P in Gerupuk Bay indicated capable of supporting maximum production amounted to 256 tons, with a number of units accounted for 364 units cages, and 120.48 ha area which can be used in accordance with the carrying capacity of the environment (Table 1).