#aquacultured

[reasonsforhope]

"When Francois Beyers first pitched the concept of 3D ocean farming to the Welsh regulators, he had to sketch it on napkins. 

Today the seafood farm is much more than a drawing, but if you walked along the Welsh coastal path near St David’s, all you’d see is a line of buoys. As Beyers puts it: “It’s what’s below that’s important.”

Thick tussles of lustrous seaweed suspend from the buoys, mussels cling to its furry connective ropes and dangling Chinese lantern-esque nets are filled with oysters and scallops. 

“It’s like an underwater garden,” says Beyers, co-founder of the community-owned regenerative ocean farm, Câr-y-Môr. The 3-hectare site is part of a fledgling sector, one of 12 farms in the UK, which key players believe could boost ocean biodiversity, produce sustainable agricultural fertiliser and provide year-round employment in areas that have traditionally been dependent on tourism. 

Created in 2020 by Beyers and six family members, including his father-in-law – an ex-shellfish farmer – the motivation is apparent in the name, which is Welsh for “for the love of the sea”. ...

Pictured: Drone shot of Câr-y-Môr, which is on the site of abandoned mussel farms. Image: Scott Chalmers

Ocean farming comes from the technical term ‘integrated multi-trophic aquaculture’, which means a mixture of different seaweed and shellfish species growing together to mutually benefit each other. But it’s not just a way of growing food with little human input, it also creates ocean habitat. 

“You’re creating a breeding ground for marine animals,” explains Beyers who adds that the site has seen more gannets diving, porpoises and seals – to name a few – since before the farm was established.

Ocean farms like Câr-y-Môr, notes Ross Brown – environmental research fellow at the University of Exeter – have substantial conservation benefits.

“Setting up a seaweed farm creates an exclusion zone so fishermen can’t trawl it,” explains Brown, who has been conducting experiments on the impacts of seaweed and shellfish farms across the UK. 

Brown believes a thriving ocean farming industry could provide solutions to the UK’s fish stock, which is in “a deeply troubling state” according to a report that found half of the key populations to be overfished. “It would create stepping stones where we have safe havens for fish and other organisms,” he adds. 

But UK regulators have adopted a cautious approach, note Brown and Beyers, making it difficult for businesses like Câr-y-Môr to obtain licenses. “It’s been a tough old slog,” says Beyers, whose aim is to change the legislation to make it easier for others to start ocean farms. 

Despite navigating uncharted territories, the business now has 14 full-time employees, and 300 community members, of which nearly 100 have invested in the community-benefit society. For member and funding manager Tracey Gilbert-Falconer, the model brings expertise but most importantly, buy-in from the tight-knit local community. 

“You need to work with the community than forcing yourself in,” she observes. 

And Câr-y-Môr is poised to double its workforce in 2024 thanks to a Defra grant of £1.1 million to promote and develop the Welsh seafood industry as part of the UK Seafood Fund Infrastructure Scheme. This will go towards building a processing hub, set to be operational in April, to produce agricultural fertiliser from seaweed. 

Full of mineral nutrients and phosphorous from the ocean, seaweed use in farming is nothing new, as Gilbert-Falconer notes: “Farmers in Pembrokeshire talk about their grandad going down to the sea and throwing [seaweed] on their farms.” 

But as the war in Ukraine has caused the price of chemical fertiliser to soar, and the sector tries to reduce its environmental impact – of which synthetic fertiliser contributes 5% of total UK emissions – farmers and government are increasingly looking to seaweed. 

The new hub will have capacity to make 65,000 litres of sustainable fertiliser annually with the potential to cover 13,000 acres of farmland. 

But to feed the processing hub, generate profit and reduce their dependency on grants, the co-op needs to increase the ocean farm size from three to 13 hectares. If they obtain licences, Beyers says they should break even in 18 months. 

For now, Beyers reflects on a “humbling” three years but revels in the potential uses of seaweed, from construction material to clothing.  

“I haven’t seen the limit yet,” he smiles."

-via Positive.News, February 19, 2024

[reportsofagrandfuture]

[probablyasocialecologist]

Farming carnivorous fish in Europe harms fishing communities in West Africa by depriving them of a resource fundamental to their nutrition and their livelihoods. Salmon are carnivorous, and farmed salmon depend on the nutrients provided through fish oil in particular, gained through grinding up smaller, wild fish. At Feedback, we have evidence that in feeding these smaller fish (sardines, sardinella, ethmalosa, etc.) to Scottish farmed salmon, major micro-nutrient losses occur. How can we allow an industry driving biodiversity loss, environmental pollution, and food insecurity to simply go on with business-as-usual?

[...]

Our research shows that in 2020, nearly 2 million tonnes of wild fish were required to produce the fish oil supplied to the Norwegian farmed salmon industry and that throughout this feeding process, one-quarter of the wild fish ground up is lost. Furthermore, the amount of fish sourced off the West African coast (FAO area 34) to supply fish oil to the Norwegian salmon farming industry in 2020 could have provided between 2.5 million and 4 million people in the region with a year’s supply of fish. 

[...]

The extraction of fish from West Africa by corporations headquartered in the Global North for the benefit of mainly high-income consumers in Europe, North America and Asia has far-reaching consequences, further entrenching global inequity and food insecurity. Thus, the continuing expansion of industrial aquaculture is fuelling a type of food imperialism. 

[wetmek]

My very overgrown Fluval flex showcasing why Hygrophila polysperma is considered a noxious weed. The Sparkling Gourami absolutely love the dense growth of the stems.

[raspboooty]

My first post :0 here are my ribbed newts they have no thoughts At All

[tootditoot]

Requested by @tuvinn ! Love to see fish with "cats" in their name, definitely need more of that in my life

[juliiluvvsyu]

Image 1 : Southern river otter - Lontra provocax

Fun fact: Southern river otters live in freshwater with riparian vegetation. Riparian vegetation protects the water from hot summers and cold winters, shielding the waters so that the aquatic life living there won't become distressed.=(^.^)=

Image 2 : Asian small-clawed otter - Amblonyx cinereus

Fun Fact: asian small-clawed otters are the smallest of all other otter species. They also have whiskers called vibrissae that detects movement of prey in the water. ( ^w^)

Image 3 : Marine otter - Lontra Felina

Fun Fact: Marine otters are the only species with the genus Lontra that is found in marine habitats. Sometimes they even eat fruits! （╹◡╹）

September 19 , 2023(*^o^*)

@meowzerswhirlingsomewhere

[starlightswordfight]

this major was a good idea actually bc now I get to learn about space sometimes WITHOUT needing to learn physics

earth sun relationship is actually VERY important to modern climate discussion which I wasn't expecting but in hindsight like. yeah. yeah. but I love getting to learn the facts without them being locked behind formulas that I'll never intrinsically understand

[moopsy-daisy]

NEW SOLARPUNK IDEA. I don't think I've ever been in a house with a cistern, but apparently it's a thing. USE IT!

[seeshelter]

Candy enjoying the new 3 tunnel configuration!

[autistickaitovocaloid]

puts you in a fishtank with the colourful aquarium gravel at the bottom

(dw it has a nice cave to hide and a bubbly filter)

waow

[asiaphotostudio]

China, 2000 Nanning, Guangxi, China. 中国 広西 南寧市 西郷塘区 Photography by Michitaka Kurata

[penpalpls]

New fish. Names????

[azuredrg]

environmental justice is a topic i am very very passionate about i just never bring it up until something comes up and i'm like guys i actually will kill someone if we don't start giving a fuck about deforestation

[luxwing]

I'm doing everything in my power to prevent myself from posting the most depressing self depreciating shit about myself right now you're welcome

Instead I will make you look at this Crab I stayed up until 1am finishing up so I can top coat it tomorrow