Planet over Profit

The right location for aquaculture is highly dependent on the sensitivity of the ecosystem to impact from industrial activities. In nature, different locations have different susceptibilities that can be difficult to predict especially in highly variable environments like intertidal zones. Obviously, aquaculture needs certain biological characteristics for growing conditions but its clear that the vast majority of aquaculture siting to date has been based on factors such as convenience to market and minimizing operational costs rather than the potential for environmental impact. While this is changing as the pressure for responsible sourcing increases, in many cases the damage has already been done.

So what is the right location for aquaculture, in short its one that considers how to integrate itself into the surrounding ecosystem. The concept of Ecosystem based management is one that is slowly becoming established into the language of NGO’s and even some governments. The idea is that development must maintain or enhance ecosystem services. Clearly if it can be done successfully then some markets are highly likely to reward those industries.

I believe that aquaculture that finds the right combination of the right species, location, and scale could become an interesting vehicle for the application of ecosystem based management especially for extensive farms where inputs are low and the ability to integrate the operation into the surrounding ecosystem is much higher. Perhaps the best example, I have heard about this is the mangrove shrimp productions that exist in Vietnam and Indonesia. I have not visited these systems myself but will be doing so early in 2012 and will offer some pictures and further perspectives at that time.