Publication
Water management
The world’s oceans, lakes and rivers are no longer an unlimited source of human food because many of the world’s fish stocks have been fished to their limits or are on the verge of collapse. This encourages the aquaculture sector to grow.
Even if aquaculture has to some extent eased the stress on wild fish stocks, poorly located and poorly managed aquaculture production has significant negative impact on the environment. Both off-coast marine production and modern land-based recirculation systems in which farming takes place at a safe distance from aquatic environments sensitive to aquaculture activities, act as promising solutions for sustainable aquaculture.
An ever-increasing demand for fish thus calls for more sustainable and more efficient solutions.
Farmers compete with other sectors for access to resources and space, whether at sea or on land. These factors can be important barriers against establishing or expanding conventional aquaculture farms.
Land-based recirculation systems offer 24/7 monitoring and control that ensure consistently good water quality and feeding programmes tailored to the needs of individual species. These optimised conditions boost growth, minimise the risk of disease and mortality, and reduce medication to a minimum. Equally, water consumption in production of 1 kilo of fish has gone from 50,000 litres to a mere 250 litres of water, with Danish state-of-the-art recirculation aquaculture systems. Off-coast marine production offer more stable conditions regarding salinity and temperature minimising the need for antibiotics.
These optimised conditions boost growth, minimise the risk of disease and mortality, and reduce medication to a minimum.
