Aquaculture Africa 2023

November 13 - 16, 2023

Lusaka, Zambia

IMPROVING THE SUSTAINABILITY AND PERFORMANCE OF INTEGRATED MULTI-TROPHIC AQUACULTURE SYSTEMS BY COMBINING AQUACULTURE BIOFILTERS

 

 

 Kevan L. Main*, Adam N. Bell, Michael J. Nystrom, Nicole R. Rhody,  Lior Guttman,  and Serina J. Ergas

 

 Marine & Freshwater Aquaculture Research Program

 Mote Marine Laboratory

 Sarasota, FL, USA

 kmain@mote.org



 There is a critical need to develop innovative and sustainable  aquaculture technologies to expand production of seafood to meet the growing demand by consumers for safe seafood resources , to reduce fishing pressure on declining wild fish populations, and to improve  the environmental sustainability of our seafood production systems.  Mote Aquaculture Research Park (Mote) scientists are working together with  our research partners at the University of South Florida’s College of Engineering (USF)  and the National Mariculture Center (NMC) in Israel  to develop integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) or marine aquaponics  farming systems  to expand  the availability of healthy seafood for local communities.  These i ntegrated systems  are  engineered to efficiently use  nutrients,  water and energy  to produce marine fish and edible sea vegetables . The  integration  of periphyton biofilters into the  recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) improves water quality, nutrient resource recovery, microbiome diversity and water treatment efficiency. Incorporation of periphyton biofilters into the Mote IMTA not only improved water quality by reducing total ammonia nitrogen (TAN), nitrite, nitrate and carbon dioxide , but produced  dissolved oxygen and repurposed  nutrients  that can be used as  a potential ingredient for fish feeds. Some of the nutrients that were removed from the water (TAN, nitrite ,  etc.) can be reclaimed by harvesting from the nets once per month.   Mote has developed a brackish water IMTA with a periphyton biofilter as a demonstration pilot-scale marine aquaponics farming system. This system can be managed by family or farmer-owned cooperatives , to supply  communities with locally produced fresh seafood and provide expanded job opportunities in  rural and urban communities.