Services / Aquaculture
Aquaculture represents the fastest increasing food production system worldwide; a quarter of the fish eaten in the world now come from aquaculture. The challenge for aquaculture is to expand in a sustainable manner whilst achieving enhanced food security and economic development.
Aquaculture is wide ranging in its implementation and technologies employed. In poorer parts of the world basic pond aquaculture has become common while intensive tank based systems are now being used in developed nations.
Livelihood Diversification
Throughout the world aquaculture is being used as both a method of increasing food security for the world's poor and diversifying livelihoods, particularly within the agriculture sector.
MEP has worked with numerous governments and NGO's to provide guidance on this diversification. This could range from the provision of an easy to read illustrative guidebook that describes how to produce farmed fish in a simple pond system, to providing direct guidance on planning and development.
Feasibility Studies and Business Planning
Investments in aquaculture can be considerable and sound, scientific and economic advice is vital in helping investors make the correct decisions. MEP has experience in feasibility studies for aquaculture projects; providing the expertise needed for marketing through to technical specification and business planning.
Example case studies:-
- Shrimp Farm Feasibility review in Saudi Arabia
Social and Environmental Impact Assessments
MEP is able to provide a social and environmental impact assessment service for start up and existing products, including detailed tidal and benthic measurements to assess the risk to the natural environment.
Semi and Fully Intensive Aquaculture System Design
Semi and Fully intensive systems are more and more popular throughout the world especially for the rearing of high value species. With the development of re-circulating technology which reuses up to 99% of the water, aquaculture is environmentally friendly and sustainable.
Intensive systems allow for greater stocking densities of species than non-intensive aquaculture, increasing possible profit margins. MEP understands and has experience in the latest aquaculture developments including system design and research into the diet of farmed fish and its future.
Example case studies:-
- Improvement FCR's of seabream for a private fish farming company, Turkey
Integrated Farming, Polyculture and Aquaponics
The benefits of integration have become clear and the realisation that aquaculture can be combined with other areas of production is an important one, e.g. wrasse are now often grown in salmon cages to provide a cleaning service for the nets rather than divers carrying this out.
Aquaponics combines aquaculture and hydroponics into a single integrated system. The system uses waste water from an aquaculture facility to produce a secondary product in the form of hydroponically grown plants. MEP has in house expertise in this new technology.
Seaweed and algae cultivation
MEP has experience in the development of seaweed and algae production units throughout the world and in particular with developing nations.