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).

Related documents:
From Strategy to Reality: Developing European Aquaculture. François Simard.
Athens, May 29-30, 2003

Planning and Management for sustainable coastal aquaculture. Joint Group of Experts on the Scientific Aspects of Marine Environmental Protection (GESAMP). 2001.

Aquaculture planning in Mediterranean countries = Planification de l'aquaculture dans les pays méditerranéens Zaragoza. CIHEAM-IAMZ, 1999. 188 p. (Cahiers Options Méditerranéennes ; v. 43). Workshop of the CIHEAM Network on Socio-economic and Legal Aspects of Aquaculture in the Mediterranean (SELAM), 1998/03/12-14, Tangiers (Morocco)

Mediterranean aquaculture: marine fish farming. By Bernardo BASURCO.

Links:
Information System for the Promotion of Aquaculture in the Mediterranean
Federation of European Aquaculture Producers
Aquamedia

For further information, please contact François Simard