Need to spread extractive aquaculture more evenly
Seaweeds (and a small fraction of aquatic plants) constitute the bulk of what is called extractive aquaculture (organisms that do not need to be fed, and, in contrast, absorb dissolved inorganic nutrients and particulate organic matter; see Table 2. Extractive aquaculture represented 50.8 percent of the world total aquaculture production in 2016. This appears to be a pretty close matching with the organisms composing what is called fed aquaculture (49.2%); however, as mentioned above, 99.4 percent of seaweed aquaculture is taking place in only seven Asian countries. Figure 1: The nine genera (6 groups) of seaweeds providing 96.1% of the aquaculture production Extractive aquaculture would need to be more evenly distributed bioremediation, while providing economic diversification with worldwide to balance fed aquaculture through the development more efficient practices within a circular economy approach. of integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA). In these systems, This is one of the ecosystem services rendered by seaweeds. In the waste materials from fed species become co-products to the next issue of International Aquafeed, I will elaborate on these grow extractive species, considered as additional crops reducing different services. the nutrient load, hence benefitting the environment through Dr. Thierry Chopin is Professor of Marine Biology, and Director of the Seaweed and Integrated MultiTrophic Aquaculture Research Laboratory, at the University of New Brunswick in Canada.
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