Prospects for fish farming at sea and future challenges for the aquaculture industry in the

North Atlantic

Øystein PaturssonFiskaaling / Aquaculture Research Station of the Faroes

www.fiskaaling.fooystein@fiskaaling.fo

seasthefutureNordic Oceans Conference, 7 & 8 June 2011 The Nordic House, Tórshavn, Faroe Islands

Overwiev

• Introduction

• Fish farming in the Faroe Islands

• What are we doing correct now?

• Possibilities for expanding this industry

• Research can make this process knowledge based

Fish farming – Future challenges

• Global demand for food is increasing• World wide fisheries have stagnated• Demand for fish farming products

• Any production that aims at producing food for the future needs to be sustainable– Salmon farming utilizes the food much better than meat

produced in agriculture– The impact on the environment needs to be kept within a

sustainable limit– The production itself also needs to be kept sustainable to ensure

the wellbeing of the farmed fish

Sustainability!

Competing on the global market

Low production cost• Optimize biological output

– Low mortalities– Fast growth – Low FCR

• Reduce production cost– Large units– Price of feed

High sales price• Value added products• Organic or similar production• Large fish

Sustainability!

Happy fish

The Faroe Islands

•Mostly open ocean

•Exposed to waves

•Strong tidal currents

Faroe Islands• 18 islands• 113 km north-south• 75 km east-west• Land area 1393 km2• Pop: 48,660 (Jan. 2010)

• Fish farming is located in almost every sheltered location

• Farmed trout and salmon: 48,662 tonnes (2009, gutted weight)

Production

• Production has been quite variable (max of 52,000 tonnes in 2003)

• The largest drop in production (16,000 tonnes in 2006) followed a series of ISA outbreaks

• Regulation became much stricter after this

• Production was back up to 49,000 tonnes in 2009

• There is a reduction in production in 2010

• Production in 2011 is expected to increase to 49,000 tonnes again (R. Dam 2011)

ISA

ISA: Infectious salmon anemia

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The Faroese farming industry

• Eggs– Mostly local production (Aquaculture Research Station of the Faroes)

and some import since 2005• Smolts

– Local production– Development is from many small flow through stations to few large

stations using recirculation • On-growing

– Sea sites– Number of sites had a maximum of 63 with the same number of

operators– Number of sites down to 40, organized in 23 management areas and

operated by 5 operators– Cages have grown to 128m circumference and exposed sites are

favored in front of the most sheltered.

Something is done right

• The Faroese salmon farming industry has evolved into being among the best in the world

• Part of this is due to strict regulations– Farming zones

– Fallowing periods

– Regulated transport

• Most distinct difference is the low number of mortalities

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(R. Dam, 2011)

The challenge is to expand and keep the fine result

Fish farming in island groups

Disadvantages• Distance from marked• Harsh weather conditions

and advantages• Isolation from disease and

pollution• Good dispersion of effluents• Stable water quality• Few operators

300 km

Farming conditions

Currents• Most farms located in bays or fjords with

slow currents• Outside the fjords, the tidal currents are

strong• The strong currents disperse whatever is

spread into these currents very fast around the entire shelf

• Concentrations are thinned out equally fast

Waves• Require strong equipment• Better conditions on the bottom under fish

farms• Therefore the sites support quite high

biomasses

Possibilities for expansion

Increase the current farming industry• Increase farming at existing sites• New sites• Increase land based farming

Diversify the industry• New species

– Fish– Shellfish– Seaweed

• IMTA (Integrated multi trophic aquaculture) or polyculture

Sheltered sites

• Sheltered for waves and current

• Little dispersion of effluents and disease agents

• Large benthic impact

• Little carrying capacity

• Careful planning required to avoid benthic problems, problems with salmon louse etc.

Exposed sites

Positive effects• Water exchange• Dispersion of effluents

Large carrying capacity

Negative effects• Large strain on equipment• Tough working conditions• Harsh environment for the farmed species

Need to design according to fish and working environment

Open ocean

The area of the shelf with depth 0-200m is 20000km2-That is more than 10 times the area of the Faroe Islands

Extreme environment

Diversification

Shellfish• Bottom dwelling

– Scallops

• Suspended culture– Mussels

– Scallops

Seaweed• Suspended culture

– Alaria esculenta

– Saccharina

Important to chose species that suit the farming environment

IMTA - Integrated Multi Trophic Aquaculture

• Integrating species from several trophic levels into one system– Seabased IMTA

• Salmon – Mussels – Kelp• Little control

– Landbased IMTA• Better control• Biofilter in recirculating systems

• A method to obtain a “greener” brand

• Necessary to make sure that farming several species does not reduce the welfare of the other species

More knowledge needed

• Current and waves• Exchange rates in cages

– Minimum water flow

• Equipment for exposed sites• Fish welfare on exposed sites • Biofouling• Benthic environment• Possible new species• Equipment for large scale land based farming• Assessing carrying capacity of exposed sites

Ongoing research

• Currents and waves in faroese fish farming fjords– Measure and model the current and wave environment– Classification of sites– Planning of aquaculture activities

• Exposed sites and open ocean– Equipment– Logistics– Fish behavior– Fish health and welfare

Ongoing research (cont.)

• Cage environment– Water exchange– Effect of biofouling

• Benthic environment– Effect of waves on the benthic environments

• Diversification– Farming of cod– Mussel farming

Research partners

In the Faroe Islands• Aquaculture Research Station of the Faroes• University of the Faroes• Faroe Marine Research Institute• Industry partners

and some of the international partners• SINTEF, Norway• Institute of Marine Research, Norway• University of Stirling, Scotland• Danish Technical University, Denmark• University of New Hampshire, USA• US Naval Academy, USA

Discussion

• Research is ongoing within the operational aspects and environmental impact of fish farming in exposed sites

• An important issue for faroese aquaculture is to gain more knowledge on the carrying capacity of the entire shelf system– Parasites– Disease

• When working in an atypical environment as the Faroe Islands, we have to fund a large portion of the research ourselves

Thank you!

Large fjord system vs islands

Hardangerfjord, NorwayFaroe Islands

One fjord has a larger production than all the Faroe Islands

Management areas

The colors show approximately the management areas

Water quality

• Stable water temperatures. Mean is around 8 oC and min and max are 2-3 oC lower and higher respectively.

• Well mixed water column.

• Only harmful algal blooms at the most sheltered sites

Larsen etal., 2008

• Fish farming in the Nordic region consists to a large degree of farming of salmonids. Expansion of this industry requires careful planning of the production practices to avoid health and environment problems. Current fish farming in the Faroe Islands utilizes all sheltered sites and the focus now is on optimizing production on these sites and to take more exposed sites into use. The aquaculture research in this area and future challenges will be described.