Monthly Archives: December 2023

Technical Screening Criteria for sustainable finfish aquaculture: input to the EU marketing standards, towards a sustainable food system and the EU taxonomy

The Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP) and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) developed a simplified set of environmental and social sustainability standards for finfish aquaculture, aiming to improve the reception of the aquaculture sector in Europe, ensure it is better recognised at a political level and encourage investment.

16 Technical Screening Criteria and 35 indicators were developed for marine and freshwater finfish aquaculture. 

You can check out the report at the link below:

221208-feap-fishfarming-technical-screening-criteria.pdf

Good Practice: SPAROS R&D – FEEDNETICS™

SPAROS is a science & technology company located in Portugal, specialized in the development of new products and tailored nutritional solutions for the aquaculture market. The company was created in 2008.

One of Sparos’ products is FEEDNETICS™, a prediction tool that evaluates the effects of aquafeeds on fish production. FEEDNETICS™ can be used by fish farmers to optimize feeding, by aquafeed companies to provide tailored client support and by academics to leverage their research, by:

• comparing estimated FCR of different feeds or feeding regimes;
• comparing different feeds or feeding regimes, in order to estimate the most cost-effective;
• predicting the expected growth and body composition of a new feed under a farm´s annual temperature profile;
• predicting the waste (Solids, N and P) at a given site and comparing for different feeds or feeding regimes;
• assessing how different feeds perform in farm sites with different temperature profiles.

The target fish species are: Gilthead seabream, European seabass, Rainbow trout, Atlantic salmon, Nile tilapia.

Sustainable Intensification of Aquaculture Using Efficient Nanobubble Technology

In order to improve the efficiency of oxygen transfer from air or oxygen bubbles, commercial companies have developed nanobubble technology production systems. Tekile, Kim and Lee (2016) reported that air and pure oxygen nanobubbles can remain suspended in water for 10 days to 15 days respectively until dissolving and are therefore a more efficient method of increasing theDO content in water.

In addition, the collapse of nanobubbles results in chemically reactive free radicals(unpaired electrons) being produced, which oxidize organic compounds, and which may improve water quality in closed aquaculture production systems. 

Find out more about nanobubble technology in the following publication by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO): 
https://www.fao.org/3/cc0143en/cc0143en.pdf