Overview of Sustainable Aquaculture

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The people of the world are demanding more fish every year. Creating a huge opportunity for profits when that demand is filled. However, current fisheries alone cannot sustain this demand, aquaculture must be present to alleviate strain on our world's fisheries. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2012) in 2006 the world produced 137.3 million tons of fish, 47.3 million tons of this was produced with aquaculture . By 2010 the total production of fish was 148.5 million tons, and total aquaculture production was 59.9 million tons. While total capture production has remained almost constant from 2006 to 2010, aquaculture production has steadily increased and is projected to continue to increase (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 2012). However, traditional flow-through aquaculture systems (FTS) come with a host of ecological problems. While some of these problems are fixable I believe the future of aquaculture lies in Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS). I intend to find out whether RAS is more environmentally sustainable than flow-through aquaculture systems. Also can new technologies correct problems with current RAS facilities making them more environmentally sustainable.
FTS in the open ocean are inherently connected with the surrounding environment. The farmed fish are contained within nets, and water flows through those nets. Perhaps the biggest problem not only for flow-through systems, but also for RAS is what to feed the fish. Often times consumers demand higher trophic level fish. This means we must feed the fish protein, many times this protein comes from other fish in the form of fish meal and fish oil. The fish in the feed are often small and wild caught (...

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... J., Prihadi, T. H., Slembrouck, J. Van Der Werf, H. M. G., Legendre, M. (2013). Life Cycle Assessment for Environmentally Sustainable Aquaculture Management: A Case Study of Combined Aquaculture Systems for Carp and Tilapia. Journal of Cleaner Production, 57, 249-256.
Ocean Conservancy. (2011). Right From the Start: Open-Ocean Aquaculture in the United States. Retrieved from http://www.aces.edu/dept/fisheries/education/documents/Open_Ocean_ Aquculture_Right_from_the_Start_bytheOceanConservancyorganization.pdf.
Ogden, L., E. (2013). Aquaculture's Turquoise Revolution. BioScience, 63, 697-704.
Rijn, J. V., (2013). Waste Treatment in Recirculating Aquaculture Systems. Aquaculture Engineering, 53, 49-56.
What is a Recirculating Farm?. Recirculatingfarms.org Retrieved October 13, 2013 from http://www.recirculatingfarms.org/what-is-a-recirculating-farm/.

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