Mediterranean aquaculture, a sustainable industry
for environment
Workshop
on Aquaculture and Environment hosted by the Universitat Politécnica
de Catalunya. Barcelona (Spain), 1 May 2004
From
the conservation point of view, Mediterranean aquaculture brings
about a number of issues related to local pollution, diseases, product
quality, introduction of new species, but also to resource management
on fish feeding/breeding as well as on target species in the case
of uncompleted life cycles.
A group of experts from France, Spain, Tunisia, Algeria, and Belgium,
including specialists from the production sector, met in Barcelona
under the coordination of the IUCN-Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation
to discuss the opportunity to build a programme that will address
aquaculture and environment related issues. A working group was
then set up to work on the following objectives:
- promoting best environmental management practices for sustainable
aquaculture within the framework of sustainable development (e.g.
guidelines, prospective analysis) and,
- developing and reinforcing communication, partnerships and links
between environmental representatives and the aquaculture sector
in the Mediterranean.
To follow the upcoming activities, a partnership agreement between
the Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation of IUCN and the European
Federation of Aquaculture Producers (FEAP) is being considered.
A series of background documents over Mediterranean aquaculture
and environmental issues as well as a meeting report will be available
soon.
International context on aquaculture
The world's fisheries are in crisis. There are mounting scientific
evidences of the sharp decline in global catches. However, fish
farming turns up as a possible solution to answer the growing demand
for seafood that catching fish cannot provide.
Aquaculture is expanding quickly worldwide. One third of the total
world supply already comes from aquaculture and Asian farmers are
the biggest contributors. In the Mediterranean, aquaculture production
is becoming as well very popular, reaching 1,266,959 ton in 1999,
which represents approximately 6% of the world aquaculture production.
Mediterranean
aquaculture
The Mediterranean aquaculture mainly focuses on mollusc production
(53.9%) although fish production is progressing (46% in 1999, and
35% in 1995), parallel to global trends of world aquaculture. Six
countries (Egypt, Spain, France, Italy, Greece and Turkey) dominated
the 96% of aquaculture production in the Mediterranean. Molluscs
(mussels, oysters,and clams) are supplied mainly by Spain, France
and Italy whilst Egypt has a semi-intensive production of freshwater
(mainly tilapia and carp) and marine finfish species (mullet) and
Greece and Turkey produce selected finfish (seabream, seabass and
trout).
One of the reasons of this expansion in the Mediterranean region
is a growing demand. Although the average consumption of seafood
across the basin is similar to other European countries (about 18kg
per person/year), there are big differences between Mediterranean
countries (Spain: 40kg; Syria: 3kg).
Unsustainable practices
In spite of the number of jobs created by the aquaculture industry,
its role to aliviate poverty to the world's growing population,
and its potential to become an alternative to capture fisheries,
unsustainable aquaculture practices could worsen the problems and
create new ones, damaging the already-stressed coastal areas.
The Mediterranean coastline suffers from an ongoing urban development,
tourism activities and even pressure on the marine environment.
Mediterranean aquaculture appears as an alternative to the declining
fishing industry and overexploited waters, and also as another competitor
to the tourism sector for coastal space.
Like in other parts of the world, the aquaculture sector in the
Mediterranean is facing a series of
numerous pitfalls and opportunities (evolution of markets, site
availability, inputs -mainly seeds-, diseases, planning, infrastructures
and human resources).