SPAIN
released in 2018 and offers a blueprint of how aquaculture should develop on the Canary Islands. The plan envisages the integrated management of activities that have an impact on the marine environment. Within this overall objective the plan details several specific measures including the identification of zone suitable for aquaculture (as well as those where aquaculture is prohibited),
the designation of species that may be farmed and of those may not, the promotion of the sustainable growth of the activity and the prevention of conflicts with other users, and the establishment of a balance between social and economic development through the rational use of marine resources and the protection of these resources and the conservation of biodiversity.
Unit prices for seabass and seabream have increased steadily The total value of farmed fish production on the Canary Islands declined between 2019 and 2020 due to the decline in the produced volume, but the unit price of seabream increased 5 continuing a trend that
started in 2013. In the case of seabass, the unit price dropped 4.5, but from 2014 to 2019 the price has gone up each year, altogether an increase of 28. If this trend continues and the fall in the volume of production seen over the last couple of years can be reversed, it would be a welcome change after two years of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
The Spanish Bank of Algae conserves biodiversity while putting algae to new uses
Biotechnological applications for algae The Spanish Bank of Algae plays several roles in relation to algae. It identifies and characterises specimens gathered from the Macaonesian region before storing them, it cultivates them for its own purposes as well as for its customers who buy the cultures, and it participates in a number of projects that work to discover novel and innovative applications for algae.
A
lgae are among the most exciting naturally occurring organisms in the world today thanks to an increasing range of applications. They are not only a source of nutrients, pigments, and other valuable components, but can also contribute to mitigating conditions in marine environments including eutrophication, acidification, and nutrient accumulation. They are used as feed, food, fertiliser, and biofuel, and as ingredients in the bioplastic, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, and cosmetic industries.
Europe is a minnow in global algae production The roughly 11,000 species of green, brown and red algae are widely distributed across the globe in both tropical and temperate zones and are broadly categorised into micro and macro
algae. The former are unicellular organisms ranging in size from a few micrometres (millionths of a metre) to a few hundred micrometres, while the latter can be several tens of meters in length. Algae are a longstanding part of the human diet in some corners of Europe, but it is consumption in some Asian countries that is most conspicuous. Algae’s potential is increasingly recognised in Europe, where a fledgling industry seeks to exploit some of the promise that these organisms offer. Policy makers acknowledge the role algae can play in realising European goals such as those envisaged in the European Green Deal and the Farm to Fork strategy and at the European level an EU algae initiative is in the pipeline that aims to increase sustainable production of algae and algae-based products. And with good reason. According to the FAO, aquatic plant production in
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Dr Juan Luis Gómez Pinchetti, scientific director of the Spanish Algae Bank in Telde on Gran Canaria.
the EU in 2020 was a puny 87,000 tonnes, less than a quarter percent of the global production of 36 million tonnes. The biggest EU producers are France, Ireland and Spain. In Spain, the Spanish Bank of Algae, part of the University of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria in the Canary Islands, is dedicated
to isolating, characterising, and conserving algae biodiversity. Researchers are also studying and improving cultivation techniques and finding innovative applications for algae, cultures of which are provided to the scientific community, private industry or other organisations.
