Bicol University Master of Science in Sustainable Food Systems

Graduate School Principles of Sustainable Food Systems:

Legazpi City Sustainable Improvement in Aquatic Food Production Systems

Discussion on Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010

Jerome Earl A. Amaranto

T
he Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010 was organized through the efforts of the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations [FAO], the Network of Aquaculture Centers in
Asia-Pacific [NACA], and the Royal Thai Department of Fisheries on September 2010. Its
objectives were to: (1) review the present status and trends in aquaculture development; (2) evaluate
the progress made in the implementation of the 2000 Bangkok Declaration and Strategy; (3) address
emerging issues relevant to aquaculture development; (4) assess opportunities and Challenges for
future aquaculture development; and (5) build consensus on advancing aquaculture as a global,
sustainable and competitive food production sector. Aquaculture has the ability to respond to the
demand for food, improve efficiency of resource and overcome disease shocks making food
available and affordable thus providing food and nutrition security. However, the impacts of climate
change pose threats to sustainable aquaculture development. The succeeding sections are
discussions centered on selected topics from the aquaculture conference.

Challenges on Sustainable Aquaculture in a Changing Climate

Global warming has long been associated with the gradual rise of global mean temperature and
increase in greenhouse gas emissions that greatly affects the aquaculture industry. Since the 1800s,
the average temperature of the earth’s surface has been rising by 0.75°C and is expected to increase
by 1.8 to 4°C by 2100 and global sea level rise has accelerated since 1993 by about an annual mean
average of 1.5 mm. These environmental changes together with solar radiation, wind speed and
humidity have brought intense flooding, hurricanes and tropical cyclones, and irregular monsoons
that can severely damage fish farming. Extreme climatic events can cause damage to infrastructures,
inundation of ponds and loss of stock. The intrusion of marine waters on inland ponds changes the
salinity of pond waters which would result in reduced yield and introduce disease or predators
(Swaminathan, 2012).
To be able to cope with the changing climate, resilient aquaculture systems would likely maintain
economic, ecological and social gains. A resilient system entails genetic and species diversity,
species with low stress from other factors, and sound and productive populations. Such system
should be diverse and relatively flexibly and should be integrated with livestock and crop
production.
There are several techniques to achieve sustainable aquaculture. One strategy is the ecosystem
approach to aquaculture [EAA], which stresses holistic, integrated and participatory processes. Its
basic objectives are to maintain ecosystem integrity, improve human well-being and equity
promoting, and enabling good governance. Its key features include applying precautionary
approaches, using best available knowledge, acknowledging multiple objectives and values of
ecosystem services, embracing adaptive management, broadening stakeholder participation,
understanding and using wide range of management measures, and promoting sectoral integration.
Secondly is to take advantage of the short generation time and high fecundity by selectively breeding
fishes that tolerate higher temperature, salinity, and diseases by focusing on evolution of
physiological and genetic adaptations to osmotic and thermal stress of aquatic animals. Thirdly is to
safeguard the ecological security of the coastal areas and livelihood security of fisherfolks living in

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coastal areas from severe storms and tidal waves with mangrove forests. Mangrove wetlands
mitigate adverse impacts of storms and tidal waves in coastal areas, reduce coastal erosion, function
as breeding, nursery and feeding grounds for crustaceans, fish and mollusks, and enhance the fishery
potential of neighboring coastal waters. Finally, the primary challenge to the fisheries and
aquaculture sector is to ensure food supply, enhance nutritional availability, improve livelihoods and
economic output, and ensure ecosystem safety by adapting to the changing climate. To accomplish
this, it has been recommended that governments establish weather watch groups and decision
support systems on a regional scale. Policies associated with climate change should be developed
by taking into consideration all relevant social, economic, and environmental policies and actions,
including education, training, and public awareness related to climate change. It is also essential to
raise awareness on the impacts, vulnerability, adaptations and mitigation linked to climate change
among decision-makers, managers, aquaculturists and other stakeholders in the aquaculture sector
with the aim to develop adaptive livelihoods, improve governance and build institutions that can
help people and integrate aquaculture into the policies associated with climate change and rural
development (Swaminathan, 2012).
On the overall, evidence of climate change is apparent and its impact on fish farming is massive.
There are several techniques available which mitigates the effects of climate change and facilitate
adaptation of societies that when implemented, would ensure the sustainability of aquaculture. It is
important to stress that these strategies have to be integrated into policies that are holistic,
participatory, and encompasses environmental safety, socio-political aspects, and economics.
Are by-catch feeding sustainable aquaculture practice?
A by-catch is defined in fisheries as captured fish that is not generally preferred for human
consumption and are utilized for fishmeal and fish oil. Feeding farmed fish with fishmeal pose a lot
of controversies in sustainability of food supply and food security. The benefits of utilizing by-catch
in aquaculture does not outweigh the need for a healthy marine ecology.
Wijikström (2012) argues that although it would seem illogical that producing a kilogram of
farmed fish meat would require more than a kilogram of fishmeal, aquaculture remains to be an
important sector in providing fish products. His argument on utilizing by-catch as fishmeal is about
maximization of the quantity of fish that consumers will actually buy. He maintains that there are
three groups of capture fisheries, namely, (1) forage species that are not eaten as food or “industrial-
grade forage fish”, (2) species marketed as food or “food-grade forge fish”, and (3) fish with a regular
market as food but is also processed into fishmeal and oil or “prime food fish”. He further explains
that there is no point in having food fish available if it is not bought by consumers, like the first
category, and is better put into use as raw material for fishmeal or fish oil. Data of capture fisheries
average landings (in metric tons) for the three categories obtained from 2001-2006 depicts that 100
percent of industrial grade forage fish is utilized for fishmeal and fish oil, while 89.8 percent and 1.90
percent of the landings were utilized as feed and oil for food-grade forage fish and prime food fish,
respectively.
While the aquaculture industry continues to grow (Cai & Leung, 2017) and the need for fishmeal
increases. As farming fish activities intensify, it may suddenly collapse due to the high possibility that
the volume of fishmeal and fish oil supply is decreasing as there are no new fisheries sources to
exploit (Tacon, et al., 2012). Moreover, the need for fish feed raw material would encourage
overfishing that further endangers the marine resources by reducing the aquatic biodiversity. As a
result, the entire fisheries sector may collapse.

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To recapitulate, by-catch as feed raw material is efficient in an economical standpoint. However,

it is important to stress that for an activity to be sustainable, environmental aspects, as well as socio-
political, has to be taken into account. For now, the aquaculture industry requires fishmeal, but this
should be regulated: there must be policies that are put in place to prevent over fishing and support
for research in alternatives to fishmeal.
Emerging technology and its effect on the long-term resource sustainability
Undoubtedly, intensification of production from the fish farming sector is necessary for food
security. Efforts should be made to improve existing aquaculture knowhow and develop new
technologies and extending them especially to small and medium-scale systems. The innovation
and application of technologies should focus towards consensus on common goals, such as (1)
improving productivity and financial sustainability to encourage entrepreneurism and industry
expansion; (2) increasing environmental responsibility, climate resiliency, and efficient resource
utilization; (3) raising socio-economic benefits to communities and improving food security.
Several technologies have been developed to address such goals for sustainable aquaculture.
Technologies from genetics and breeding and genome-based technologies are now being rolled out
to enhance productivity and financial sustainability, such as GIFT, which employs selective breeding,
crossbreeding and hybridization to assure a sustainable supply of food for the growing population
worldwide. Genetic modification by transferring foreign genes into a new host resulting in significant
gains in traits such as growth, disease resistance and cold tolerance has also been introduced,
however, associated risks of modifying genes must be honestly and accurately analyzed and
understood using a safety-first approach and proceeding on a case-by-case basis to reduce the
probability of unanticipated and unacceptable environmental risks. In addition to genetics and
genome-based technologies, technology for health management is also essential for sustainable
production of cultured seafood. Diagnostic technologies, epidemiology, vaccines, dietary
supplements, chemotheraputants, and disease exclusion are some of the emerging technologies for
managing health of farmed aquatic organisms. Furthermore, technologies involving nutrition for
aquatic organism for instance, feed formulation, feed production and feeding systems, allows for
the increase in production and productivity in addition to enabling operators to better understand
the digestion process coupled with novel solutions for delivering nutrients that has minimal
environmental impact.
Introducing integrated multi-trophic aquaculture is an ecological-based technology that utilizes
nutrient waste from fed species to organisms that are filter-feeding and primary producers.
Technologies like this are efficient in utilizing resources and have low environmental impact. Another
technology that is environment friendly and cost-effective is biofloc technology (BFT) that involves
microorganisms that consume fish excretions, which are then consumed by another organism that
is eventually eaten by the fish. An important feature of BFT is its ability to recycle proteins and
elimination of water exchange as water is recycled.
The use of information technology in aquaculture have greatly improved fish farming operations.
Computers process information from sensors in a feedback system that allows operators to monitor
and make decisions thereby improving efficiencies and reducing waste resulting to financially and
environmentally sustainable operations.

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Discussion of a Minireview Paper on Integrating Seaweeds into

Marine Aquaculture Systems: A Key Toward Sustainability
Problems/Challenges, Objectives, and Hypothesis
The high demand for fish is the driving force in the global intensification of production in aquaculture
for finfish and crustaceans. Intensive aquaculture requires supplementing with feeds as an
exogenous source of energy. Even species that do not require exogenous feeding, such as shellfish,
can also negatively impact the environment as it changes local communities and food chain patterns,
enhance sedimentation and may alter water current direction and velocity. Direct discharge of
nutrient-rich effluents of aquaculture production systems into coastal waters is one of the major
environmental concerns as this can lead to the enhancement of sediment metabolism, reduction of
dissolved oxygen in water, reduction of sulfates and accumulation of sulfides, high nitrogen and
phosphorous flux, lowering of water pH, and turbidity of water, which leads to eutrophication.
The review aimed to come up with an ecologically healthy aquaculture practices and management
of resource that underscores a balanced ecosystem to avoid pronounced shifts in coastal processes.
The premise of the study is that by integrating seaweeds into aquaculture would not only
counterbalance the nutrient inputs into the water from the operation but also including other
metabolic aspects like dissolved oxygen, acidity, and carbon dioxide levels.
Salient Findings from Review of Related Literature
Aquaculture in Western countries tend to focus on high value and high monoculture production
because of the temptation of short-term financial gains from fish or shrimp farming. On the other
hand, Asian countries have been practicing integrated aquaculture through trial and error, and
experimentation for centuries. Integrating seaweeds in aquaculture can be a useful tool for
measuring the zone of influence of an aquaculture site due to its ability to assimilate bioavailable
nutrients over time. Seaweeds can accumulate tremendous biomass as it is able to absorb dissolved
nutrients, thus functioning as a water scrubber. In fact, China has been able to produce more than
4.8 million tons (70.6 percent of world’s seaweed aquaculture production) of several species of
seaweeds with a relatively significant economic value.
Data Sources and Synthesis Methods
The study reviewed over 50 prior researches on the topic of integrated aquaculture system between
the years 1997 to 2001. It made use of descriptive statistics and the approach was a case study in
nature. The variables that were considered in the review included net production, stocking density
and profitability indicators. This methodology of this review, as with any other case studies, was
chosen to be able to formulate new research questions on how to make aquaculture an ecologically
sound activity based on the perspective of sustainability.
Key Findings and Limitations
Integration of seaweeds into aquaculture has the ability to produce a huge amount of biomass that
functions as a nutrient buffer along coasts, which can be regarded as a renewable biological nutrient
scrubber. However, seaweeds can also become saturated with the nutrients it has assimilated. As
such, the necessity to harvest seaweeds has to be included in the overall operation of fish/shrimp
farming. Likewise, considerations must also be taken with regards to the desirable seaweed growth
stage that would make it profitable for harvesting, as well as the control of biomass of problem

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species that causes macroalgal blooms, the red or brown microalgal blooms, and blooms of short-
lived filamentous algae.
Conclusion and Implications
On the whole, the intensification in production from the aquaculture sector greatly impacts the
environment, which is often experienced when environmental stress is already prevalent. For
aquaculture to be sustainable, the aquatic ecosystem has to be managed and balanced by means of
introducing a diverse group of organisms capable of providing the necessary biological and
environmental function to maintain a stable ecology. By developing an integrated system, one that
is able to combine feeding and extracting activities at several trophic levels, is one solution that can
significantly reduce the environmental costs of aquaculture operations.
(Chopin, et al., 2001)

Aquaculture vs. Marine Protected Area

Aquaculture and marine protected areas (MPAs) are essential in achieving a sustainable food
system and food security. Fish farming has greatly complemented capture fisheries to meet the
global for fish, while MPAs maintain the productivity, biological diversity and the ecosystems of
marine bionetworks. Both are necessary in ensuring a continuous food supply.
Since the 90s, global production trend in capture fisheries has plateaued at around 90 – 95 MT
per year, which falls short of the 140 MT demand for fish and has been growing at a rate of nearly
3% (Cai & Leung, 2017). Due to this gap, aquaculture production of finfish has intensified and has
been contributing about 50 percent of the world aquatic food production by fisheries. However,
aquaculture does not only involve finfish farming but also species of shrimp and prawns, crawfish,
diverse marine plants, oysters, clams, and other mollusks. Culturing aquatic organisms is as
important as production of agricultural crops in achieving a sustainable food supply and food
security (Parker, 2012).
Currently, the aquaculture industry predominantly depends on marine resources, such as by-
catch, which are non-preferred species for food consumption, to produce feeds for finfish farming.
As capture fisheries is generally a continuous activity, marine resources will be depleted over time.
In fact, it has been observed that the global fish catch has been consistently declining since 1989. If
the activity is left without any interventions, the marine productivity, biological diversity, and the
marine ecosystems is sure to fail (The Benefits of Marine Protected Areas, 2003).
Establishing MPAs to protect reefs, seagrass beds, lagoons, saltmarshes, mangroves, and the
like, will provide a range of benefits for fisheries, local economies and the marine environment: MPAs
conserve the biodiversity and ecosystems; arrest and possibly reverse the global and local decline
of fish population and productivity by protecting critical breeding, nursery, and feeding habits; raise
the profile of an area for marine tourism; and provide opportunities for education, training, heritage
and culture. MPAs play a significant role in fisheries because it provides support for stock
management by protecting specific life stages as nursery grounds; it protects critical functions like
feeding grounds or spawning grounds; provides as a spillover of an overexploited species; and
provides for dispersion centers for supply of larvae to a fishery, thus creating a stable fishery (The
Benefits of Marine Protected Areas, 2003).

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In summary, aquaculture is necessary to complement the productivity of capture fisheries, but

for it to be sustainable, it is also vital to establish and maintain MPAs to serve as hubs to support
fishery stability. In addressing sustainable food supply and food security, we need both.

References
Cai, J., & Leung, P. (2017). Short Term Projection of Global Fish Demand and Supply Gaps. Rome:
FAO.

Swaminathan, M. (2012). Aquaculture and Sustainable Nutrition Security in a Warming Planet.

Farming the Waters for People and Food (pp. 3-19). Rome/Bangkok: FAO/NACA.

Parker, R. (2012). Aquaculture Science, 3rd edition. NY: Delmar, Cengage Learning.

The Benefits of Marine Protected Areas. (2003). Commonwealth of Australia.

Wijkström, U. (2012). Is Feeding Fish with Fish a Viable Practice? Farming the Waters for People
and Food (pp. 33-55). Rome: FAO/NACA.

Tacon, A. J., Hasan, M. R., Allan, G., El-Sayed, A. F., Jackson, A., Kaushik, S. J., . . . Viana, M. T. (2012).
Aquaculture Feeds: Addressing the Long-Term Sustainability of the Sector. Farming the
Waters for People and Food (pp. 193-231). Rome: FAO/NACA.

Chopin, T., Buschmann, A. H., Halling, C., Troell, M., Kautsky, N., Neori, A., . . . Neefus, C. (2001).
Integrating Seaweeds into Marine Aquaculture Systems: A Key Toward Sustainability.
Journal of Phycology, vol. 37, 975-986.

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