Mitigation of environmental impacts of cold water finfish aquaculture

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Fish farming can provide food security to coastal communities which are faced with poor catches of wild fish.  However, the economic and health benefits of cultured seafood have to be balanced against their environmental costs. While small-scale farms or land-based operations are much better for the environment, they may not be economical unless environmental costs are taken into account. On the other hand, environmental damage from intensive culture of finfish species can be reduced if large farms are integrated with extractive systems. In integrated intensive aquaculture, finfish are cultured next to other organisms which convert water that would otherwise be discharged, into valuable products. In this way the wastes created during the production of one crop can become a resource for producing others. Land-based aquaculture systems in which monocultures are connected through water transfer afford the best control of yields and environmental impacts. Thus we will 1) model carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus throughputs in a 1,400 m2 land-based cold water aquaculture facility, 2) determine inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus extraction capabilities of cultured phytoplankton, 3) determine particulate carbon and nitrogen extraction capabilities of cultured mussels, 4) determine the biochemical quality of phytoplankton and mussels cultured through land-based integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, and 5) estimate potential mussel production in association with finfish cage sites in Newfoundland waters. Two students and a technician will be in place by April 2008 and ready to start work on this project. The students will have completed all of their course work, so we will have a very fast startup. From our results we will be able to recommend ecological practices that not only reduce the burden on coastal ecosystems, but improve the social acceptability of aquaculture as well as increase the economic returns. Managing waste input from the aquaculture industry to coastal waters is becoming increasingly important as aquaculture will probably dominate fish production in the coming decades.