A considerable part of current world's human population has a severe scarcity of food and freshwater. To meet the food humankind demand there is only one global way: an increase of aquaculture production. Over the past decade, there has been no significant increase in marine aquaculture production on a global scale. In inland waters, world aquaculture production grown, and its share in total aquaculture production increased from 58% to 64%. In fresh waters, inland aquaculture has the fastest growth thus contributing to the eutrophication of freshwater bodies. This damages resources of drinking water. Is it possible for humanity to meet the food demands by aquaculture development without damage to fresh water resources? Authors think that there is a main way to overcome this by developing aquaculture in saline and hypersaline lakes and lagoons firstly.
To develop aquaculture in saline/hypersaline lakes we need to take into account what there is the diversity of such lakes. Different opportunities for aquaculture development provide varied water bodies, which need to be considered. In a salinity range of 17-35 (40) g/L, there is a good prospect for cultivation of many fish and shrimp species of marine origin, and inland Lake Qarun (Egypt) provides a good example of this. Hypersaline waters (salinity > 35 (40) g/L) are harsh habitats for organisms, but they can be highest productive. Not so many shrimp and fish species can grow at salinity higher than 50 g/L. Hypersaline lagoon Bardawil is a good example of high fish and shrimp productivity in hypersaline waters (up to salinity of 70 g/l). Additionally to shrimps and fish, many eukaryotic organisms of different taxa (filamentous and microalgae, crustaceans, chironomids, etc.) can be cultivated in hypersaline lagoons/lakes/ponds, which biomass can be used in agriculture, aquaculture, as food supplements, and different industries. A list of them is discussed. Hypersaline aquaculture has good perspectives and can be very profitable in the arid and semi-arid areas. There is a large potential Artemia cultivation in lakes and ponds in arid areas. Not only Artemia spp. can be grown in hypersaline waters, but number of other crustacean and diptera species, which can be good live food for larvae and juveniles of cultivated fish and shrimps.
This study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant 18-16-00001).