novel approaches for evolving needs - EUROSFAIREnovel approaches for evolving needs Summary Document of Aquaculture Europe 2009 . 2 ... pharmacology, toxicology, drug discovery and

new research frontiers

novel approaches for evolving needs

Summary Document of Aquaculture Europe 2009

2 Aquaculture Europe 2009

Compiled by the European Aquaculture Society secretariat. September 2009

The photos appearing in this report are courtesy of

Stéphanie Prades Yves Harache and Noah Cooksey

for which many thanks


Contents

Overview, Welcome Reception and Opening ................................................................................. 4

Our AE2009 sponsors ................................................................................................................... 6

AE2009 Thematic (Plenary) sessions.............................................................................................. 7

AE2009 Parallel Session Summaries ............................................................................................ 10

From Waste to Taste ......................................................................................................................... 10

Benefiting from Accelerating Genomic Research ............................................................................. 10

The Challenges of New Feed Resources ............................................................................................ 12

Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) .................................................................................. 14

Technologies for Sustainable Aquaculture Production (SUSTAINAQUA) .......................................... 16

EAS Student Group Workshop .......................................................................................................... 18

Aquaculture Governance, Policy and (Socio-) Economic Research ................................................... 19

Life Cycle Management - Environment ............................................................................................. 21

Offshore Aquaculture Engineering .................................................................................................... 23

Microbiology in Aquaculture Systems ............................................................................................... 25

Shellfish Aquaculture ......................................................................................................................... 26

EU Forum ........................................................................................................................................... 27

Life Cycle Management – Animal ...................................................................................................... 29

A special thanks to our Local Organising Committee and our Students ......................................... 30

The AE2009 President’s Reception .............................................................................................. 31

Multifactorial Disease ........................................................................................................................ 32

EAS Thematic Group EUROSHELL: SRA for the European Shellfish Sector ........................................ 33

Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) ......................................................................................... 35

Aquaculture Europe 2009 Poster Awards .................................................................................... 38

AE2009 Best Poster ........................................................................................................................... 38

AE2009 Best Student Poster .............................................................................................................. 40

The Lindsay Laird Award ............................................................................................................. 42

The EAS Student Group Ibrahim Okumus Award ......................................................................... 43

See you at Aquaculture Europe 2010 ........................................................................................... 44


Overview, Welcome Reception and Opening Aquaculture Europe 2009 was organised by the European Aquaculture Society (EAS) and was held at

the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, Norway from August 14-

17, 2009, just prior to Aqua Nor 2009.

AE2009 was attended by close to 400 delegates from 51 countries. This document summarises the

reports of the AE2009 Parallel Sessions, as received by the session chairs. Only very simple language

editing has been made by the EAS secretariat. Not all sessions have been reported, hence

unfortunately, there are gaps. Information is also provided on the winners of the AE2009 Poster

Awards, as designated by the Session Chairs and Programme co-chairs, as well as the winners of the

Lindsay Laird Award and the EAS Student Group Ibrahim Okumus Award.

At the Welcome Reception in the Archbishop’s Palace on the evening of August 14, AE2009 was officially opened by the EAS 2008-2010 President Selina Stead, with a sumptuous buffet dinner and exquisite musical interlude from an excellent ladies vocal ensemble Cantus, who slowly intermingled with guests and had the entire audience transfixed.

The AE2008 Welcome Reception. The excellent buffet and wonderful ambience was kindly offered by the Mayor of Sor-Trondelag County, Mr. Tore Sandvik (pictured top-right). EAS President Selina Stead (bottom-right) welcomed delegates to AE2009.


As Selina pointed out to delegates, many people worked incredibly hard behind the scenes to make AE2009 a success and much of this work is voluntary. From start to finish of the AE2009 preparations and the conference itself, there was an infectious buzz of energetic dialogue that has secured the European Aquaculture Society’s (EAS) annual conference as the leading European aquaculture information exchange event.

The conference itself opened on Saturday, August 15 in the excellent main auditorium of NTNU.

Helge Reinertsen, AE2009 Steering Committee chair welcomed delegates, before handing the floor to

the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Science and Technology, Ingvald Strømmen, who presented

NTNU and especially the inter-disciplenary organisation of aquaculture research within the marine

consortium of NTNU and SINTEF.

Selina Stead thanked NTNU for their hsoting of Aquaculture Europe, before handing back to Helge to

introduce the first pleanary speaker of the conference, Jan Olafsen.


Our AE2009 sponsors

Aquaculture Europe 2009 received kind financial support from the Nor Fishing Foundation, the

Norwegian University of Science and Technology, The Research Council of Norway, Intervet

Schering Plough Animal Health and Biomar.

Their support is fundamental to the organisation of Aquaculture Europe events

and the high quality of the conference facilities, catering and receptions.


AE2009 Thematic (Plenary) sessions The AE2009 Thematic Sessions included presentations from 5 speakers, each addressing key

questions related to new research frontiers.

Jan Olafsen of the University of Tromsø and President of the European Society of Marine

Biotechnology was the Programme co-chair of the AE2004 “Biotechnologies for Quality” conference

held in Barcelona, and it was therefore fitting that he opened AE2009+ with an overview of the status

of Blue Biotech five years on. He argued that the application of molecular and biotechnological tools,

together with recent advances in genomics, will support the development of sustainable aquaculture

and that better understanding the molecular aspects of reproduction, development and growth will

result in better control of those processes. Molecular diagnostics combined with novel immunization

strategies will decrease the impact of diseases and their transmission. Ecological and genetic

approaches are required to assess chemical and biological interactions between aquaculture and the

environment and improved microbial “control” and bioremediation of mariculture will ensure

environmental compatibility. He suggested that Blue Biotech investment in Europe is still way behind

that of USA, China and Japan, but that even in these countries; it still only represents a small

proportion of total biotech investment. He concluded that while the sector represents a large

potential, the current level of collaborative research is insufficient, and would need to be carried out

in a highly interdisciplinary fashion including marine biology, botany, microbiology, biotechnology,

nanotech, systems biology, bioinformatics, pharmacology, toxicology, drug discovery and -omics

technologies.

Arne Fredheim of SINTEF in Norway then set out the technological challenges and opportunities in

meeting future industry requirements.

Arne Fredheim delivers one of the plenary presentations at AE2009, with a focus on multi-disciplinary technology.

A modern fish farm must ensure economically viable, and socially and environmentally sustainable

production by withstand physical forces, be easy to operate, ensure proper fish welfare, and


minimise environmental impact. To progress with this

development fish behaviour and needs should be

identified and operational procedures and management

protocols established, and based on this input can

optimal technology and systems be designed. To

achieve this development a multidisciplinary approach

need to be taken. Arne presented the challenges related

to farming in high energy systems, in submerged cages,

with regard to feeding technologies and monitoring and

regarding remote sensor technology and intelligent

feedback to farm control systems. He gave the example

of the Norwegian centre for research-based innovation

in aquaculture technology – CREATE that is developing

new solutions for equipment and constructions;

operations and handling and farming intelligence.

Peter Bossier of Ghent University in Belgium presented

a review of the role of microbiota in aquaculture target

organisms and their environment. The host microbial

community (MC) is influenced by the host itself and by

the microbial community of the system in which the

host is living. It is anticipated that there is a mutual

interaction between the different compartments of the

system in every stage of the life cycle and that the

strength and the nature of those interactions can

depend on the life cycle stage.

Apart from these horizontal interactions, it is

anticipated that MCs evolve as the host grows or the

system changes. A certain degree of top-down

conditioning belongs to the possibilities. This would

mean that the early colonisation of the host by certain

micro-organisms, might condition the response of the

host and determine the microbial community

composition in later life stages. The long-term influence

of the initial settlement of MC has not yet been studied,

and it is essential to investigate to what extent

microbiota may remain stable in the gut of juveniles. In

addition the environment (e.g. temperature, feed,

water quality, sanitation measurements) will determine

to a great extent the composition and activity of the

microbial communities in the different compartments.

The new FP7 project PROMICROBE (FP-227197), is

developing novel experimental and technological tools

that will be helpful in unravelling the complex


interaction between microbiota and the host in the dynamic setting of especially intensive

aquaculture. The resulting knowledge should help in steering the MC composition and activity to the

benefit of the host.

Odd Magne Rødseth of AquaGen, Norway gave a presentation of fish breeding and a fascinating

overview of new molecular biology applications and technological improvements in that area. While

pointing out that the annual value of animal production at the farm level in the European Union -25

is € 132 billion, he estimated that the value creation coming from aquaculture is of the order of € 2.8

billion. A conservative estimate of the economic gain achieved each year by animal breeding at farm

level is 1.83 billion EURO in Europe alone, of which economic gain from aquatic animal breeding

contributes with almost €100 million (FABRE-TP, 2006).

Odd Mange made reference to a recent survey among stakeholders in the various sectors of the

livestock and aquaculture industry, showing that the top three driving forces were identified as (1)

Profitability of livestock production, (2) Food safety issue and (3) Development of breeding

technologies. According to the stakeholders in the survey, reproduction technologies, gene/marker

assisted selection, polyploidisation (aquaculture species) and early sex determination were

considered as the most important technologies towards 2020, while transgenics and cloning received

relatively low mean importance scores for all species groups.

Finally, Courtney Hough of the Federation of European Aquaculture Producers presented the

European Aquaculture Technology and Innovation Platform (www.eatip.eu). Technology platforms

address technological challenges that can potentially contribute to a number of key policy objectives

which are essential for Europe’s future competitiveness. The prime activities of these entities are

enabling the stakeholders of relevant economic and societal interests to identify together the

innovation challenges for their collective interests; developing a strategic research agenda that

responds to these challenges and implementing the results through effective dissemination and

technology transfer mechanisms. 35 European Technology Platforms are listed and which cover a

wide range of industrial sectors (see http://cordis.europa.eu/technology-

platforms/individual_en.html).

The European Aquaculture Technology & Innovation Platform (EATIP) is registered as an

International Non-Profit Association encompassing seven Thematic Areas of interest, each of which

covers important sectoral areas of importance within the aquaculture value chain. These are:

Product quality and human safety and health; Technology and systems; Managing the biological

lifecycle; Sustainable feed production; Integration with the environment; Aquatic animal health and

welfare and Knowledge management. It is the immediate task of each Thematic Area to prepare an

individual draft Strategic Research Agenda on its subject matter, using expertise drawn from

industry, RTD and other relevant stakeholders.

A recently awarded Supporting Action for supporting governance in aquaculture research and

innovation, AquaInnova, will provide much needed resources to deliver EATIP’s Vision Document and

Strategic Research Agenda.

http://www.eatip.eu/

http://cordis.europa.eu/technology-platforms/individual_en.html

http://cordis.europa.eu/technology-platforms/individual_en.html


AE2009 Parallel Session Summaries

From Waste to Taste Session chair: Turid Rustad (Norway).

It was discussed if the title of the session gives the right message to the audience – it is very catchy –

but the word waste is not really a good term for this valuable raw material. From farmed fish in

Norway the waste (or rest raw material >200 000 tons in 2008) is utilised, but the main part (almost

160 000 tons) of this is used for silage, some is used for feed and only a small part is used for human

consumption. Utilising a higher proportion of this rest raw material for value-added products is a

challenge.

Another challenge is the laws and regulations concerning processing and use of by-products, which is

something researchers, fish processing plants and the aquaculture industry should take up with the

authorities.

It should be possible to collect the rest raw material from farmed fish fresh with a low degree of

degradation, however, this is a highly perishable raw material, and finding good preservation

methods is still a challenge. When making feed from fish by-products, the quality (degree of

degradation) of the by-products are important for quality of the feed and the feed intake of the fish

eating the feed. The varying quality of feed based on rest raw materials is limiting the interest in this

type of feed.

In order to utilize the rest raw materials for human consumption, production of fish proteins

hydrolysates and fish oil is one possibility. The hydrolysis process for extraction of protein and oil

from fish byproducts needs to be optimised with regard to high yield and quality of either oil or

proteins.

For the proteins from fish by-products to be of interest for the food industry, the proteins have to

have functional properties (water holding, emulsifying, foaming properties etc). A new and

interesting field of research in this area is the study of how chemical modifications can improve

functional properties of proteins isolated from fish by-products.

Benefiting from Accelerating Genomic Research Session chair: Augustine Arukwe (Norway).

A large number of the world’s human populations are dependent on fish as an important source of

food, particularly, due to their high content of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA). The

availability of new and high throughput molecular tools is helping in the development and

application of genomics in a number of scientific fields (including aquaculture, fisheries, and other

marine sciences). For some commercially important fish species, genomic tools are already in use.

For example, thousands of expressed sequence tags (EST) are now available for some of these

species, and complete genome sequencing for tilapia, cod, salmonids, flatfishes, sea bass and Pacific

oyster are finished, ongoing or proposed. The Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) is well-established

aquaculture species with annual production of several million tons. For marine species, the Atlantic


cod (Gadus morhua) is increasingly becoming an economic species of aquaculture significance and

there are “Atlantic Cod Genomics and Broodstock Development Project” (CGP) with the objective to

develop an extensive set of genomics tools for this species. To date, the cod and salmon genome

sequencing projects has produced a large set of ESTs generated from multiple tissues and life stages,

a set of novel markers derived from microsatellite sequences and single nucleotide polymorphisms

(SNPs), and several thousand probe oligonucleotide microarrays.

On the other hand, large scale breeding programs of Atlantic salmon were established around 1970

and since then, production of farm salmon has steadily increased, and represents economically, the

most important aquaculture industry today, in countries such as Norway. Unfortunately, farmed

salmon escape and enter Norwegian rivers to interact with wild salmon. Thus, this large production

comes with a challenging problem in managing wild population for sustainable fisheries and warrants

the development of genomic approaches to study genetic interaction between farm and wild Atlantic

salmon. The main approach that is being applied by a research group in Norway is to pursue the

screening of several farm and wild populations for a large set of genetic markers (SNPs) across the

genome. Therefore, the development of sustainable aquaculture requires an understanding of the

basics and fundamental components of individual species genome compositions.

At the genomic session, studies that addressed several aspects of fisheries and aquaculture problems

from a molecular standpoint in several species were presented. These includes - Atlantic Cod

Genomics studies in Canada with emphasis on the progress in marker development, linkage mapping

and oligo-array construction; morphological determination and genetic identification of Hungarian

bullhead catfish populations; a QTL for resistance to infectious pancreatic necrosis in Atlantic salmon

with emphasis on the potential for marker-assisted selection at the population level; a genomic

approach to study genetic interaction between farm and wild Atlantic salmon; molecular

identification of laser micro-dissected gut contents of larval cod; a cheap and reliable PCR-based

molecular method for the authentication of fish species and the impact of next generation genomics

technologies on aquaculture production: current status and future prospects

While functional genomics describe the development and application of global (genome-wide or

system-wide) experimental approaches to assess gene function by making use of the information and

reagents provided by genome sequencing and mapping; proteomics assesses protein activities,

modifications and localization, and interactions of proteins in complexes. The term proteome defines

the entire protein complement in a given cell, tissue or organism. Given that the proteome is in a

dynamic change mode and technologically one always tries to hit a target in constant movement. In

general, these technologies have the overall objective of identifying and characterizing sources of

variation in gene expression experiments and establish standard protocols for gene expression

experiments and bioinformatics standards and tools, evaluate condition-specific patterns of gene

expression and define trans-species and organ-specificities, integrate gene expression profiling data

with other sources of data on proteomics, metabonomics and phenotypic anchoring, elucidate

molecular mechanisms of cellular responses to environmental, nutritional, developmental and

physiological agents and develop gene expression-based biomarkers.

Therefore, there is no doubt that the omics technologies are shifting scientific paradigms from

investigative to predictive science. To a greater extent, we are looking at a dynamic system that is

constantly changing and growing. Thus, we can see biology “in-situ” or catch it happening and

because of that we will find new mechanisms and better suited to develop new ways to look at


processes that modify or affect these mechanisms. The wealth of new information coming from the

many genome-sequencing projects is providing unprecedented opportunities for major advances in

all areas of biology, including aquatic sciences. One of the most important uses of aquatic animals is

derivation of genomic information for use in comparative genomic studies and they are also excellent

models for basic experimental studies. Although, there seem to be an established consensus that

aquaculture and fisheries researches are shifting “paradigm” from hypothesis- to discovery-driven

research approach and these are extensively being utilized in understanding basic biology of

aquaculture species and for increased production output.

Future challenges lie in the utilization of this massive genome information to improve estimates of

the effects of demographic processes, such as population declines and bottlenecks, effective

population sizes, identification of wild and farmed individuals, among others. In addition, there are

challenges to utilizing these genome data for increased statistical power to detect minute levels of

population structuring and to assign individuals of unknown origin to known baseline populations,

for instance in mixed stock analyses.

The Challenges of New Feed Resources Chairs: Sachi Kaushik (France) and Trygve Sigholt (Norway)

Session sponsored by BIOMAR

This session was the longest of AE2009, covering two full days with more than twenty presentations

and a few posters. Besides updating our knowledge on micronutrient requirements and supply from

different ingredients, most studies presented dealt with fish meal and fish oil replacement in feeds

using a wide range of alternative sources of terrestrial or marine origin, the physiological

consequences in different species and the economic and sustainability issues. Besides nutritional

aspects, feed technology issues and feeding strategies were also considered.

The review by Rune Waagbø (Bergen, Norway) dealt with the re-evaluation of the existing

recommendations (NRC, 1993) on vitamin, mineral and trace element requirements of finfish in the

current context where novel feed ingredients are being used more and more in place of marine

ingredients. Studies undertaken with rainbow trout show that while a total absence of vitamin and

mineral supplementation led to reduced growth, gill pathology, and reduced status of some vitamins

or trace elements, for several others, the ingredients themselves are capable of supplying them in

sufficient amounts. Data presented show the importance of reassessment of practical requirements

for salmonids - especially with the use of plant-based feeds and several functional biomarkers of use

in such studies.


Anne-Marie Bakke (Oslo, Norway) presented the recent joint work undertaken by several scientists

on “Criteria for safe use of plant ingredients in diets for aquacultured fish”

http://www.vkm.no/dav/cfb49955fc.pdf . There is a need to investigate the consequences of various

anti-nutritional factors, individually and in combinations on all aspects of fish metabolism. It was

pointed out during the discussion that new approaches and methods are needed to fully understand

the effect high level of plant based diets on aquacultured fish. Studies as the comparison of

susceptibility to infectious diseases in Atlantic salmon fed a plant based and a fish meal based diet

and the effect of lupine quinolizidine alkaloids (lupinine and sparteine) on growth and feeding in

rainbow trout are examples of such approaches.

From the different studies presented, it is clear that it is now possible to produce most species

(including Atlantic salmon) on a commercial scale with feeds containing only 10% fish meal without

affecting the quality characteristics of the edible end product. Thus, salmon culture can be a net

producer of marine protein. Much progress has also been made to reduce the levels of fish oil by

using appropriate mixtures of plant oils with finishing feeding strategies for tailoring and ensuring

flesh fatty acid profiles (EPA&DHA) to meet human nutritional needs. However, it was pointed out in

the discussion that EPA&DHA requirements will affect “Fish In - Fish Out (FIFO)” more than fish meal

requirements. Combined reduction of fish meal and fish oil is also under way under the EU-

integrated project (Aquamax). These studies thus address issues related to “Fish In - Fish Out”. An

interesting study by Olive (Newcastle, UK) showed a possible net production of PUFA by polychaetes.

PUFA availability may be the ultimate limitation for cold water aquaculture. Thus, new raw materials

containing PUFAs are needed.

In commercial production of salmonids, there may be contradictory criteria for nutrition and physical

quality of the pellets. The pellet should not break during transport, but should be digested by the

fish. There are really no good methods that fully describe physical pellet quality and such tests are

rarely done in feeding trials. Aas (NOFIMA marine, Norway) showed that physical pellet quality

affected feed intake and digestibility. Can this lead to wrong conclusions in feeding trials? More work

may be needed in this area.

http://www.vkm.no/dav/cfb49955fc.pdf


Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) Chairs: Gamze Turan (Turkey) and Yngvar Olsen (Norway)

Based on current understanding of the relationship between aquaculture and its sustainability,

development of an Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) system is crucial. This was made

evident during the IMTA session at AE2009.

Aquaculture is the fastest growing food industry in the world. Today, however, aquaculture is at a

crossroads and there are many critical aspects of its sustainability that need to be addressed due to

ecological impacts of near-shore aquaculture systems and the rising costs of raising carnivorous

species. The challenge now, is to increase aquaculture's production capacity without exceeding the

ecosystem assimilative capacity. As a case example, it was concluded that IMTA can help the

aquaculture sector in Turkey, the fourth leading aquaculture country in Europe in 2006, to comply

with environmental legislative guidelines, standards, and controls. The recent regulations made by

the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Forestry have forced relocation of coastal finfish farms to

the land and off-shore.

As an emerging innovative solution IMTA is proposed for environmental sustainability, economic

diversification, and social acceptability. Today, several IMTA projects are being conducted in different

parts of the world, including Europe like those presented in the session, Canada, Chile, China, Israel

Aquaculture Europe lunches - a good time to catch up and discuss the morning sessions, look at posters and make sometimes difficult choices for the afternoon ones.


and South Africa. IMTA practice combines the cultivation of finfish with shellfish and seaweed

species for a balanced ecosystem management approach. The point of IMTA is to increase long-term

sustainability and profitability per cultivation unit as the wastes of one species supports the culture

of additonal valuable species. In this way a larger fraction of the nutrients in the feed become

cultivated components with an economic value. The secondary species also play a key role in services

and recycling processes in the ecosystem.

The IMTA studies presented in this session recognize two non-conflicting values of IMTA, which are

mitigating a potential environmental problem for aquaculture and obtaining added value of feed

investments by producing alternative crops based on wastes from aquaculture systems. Several

projects in the session showed also that IMTA component may include species of finfish, shellfish,

seaweed in various land-based and sea-based aquaculture systems, such as recirculating, pond,

raceway, cage, wetland aquaculture systems. Moreover, simple box models, dynamic models for

water spreading, integrated 3-D models and energetic models at species and population levels were

all used to describe and analyze IMTA systems.

The recommendations from the session for the future are summarized as follows:

Several options exist to introduce ecological engineering tools for treating and reducing waste

discharges from aquaculture activities into the environment, moving toward a more balanced

ecosystem approach. However, the main direction authorities and industry have deployed for

managing waste discharges from aquaculture can still be described as "the illusion of dilution". The

intense use of coastal zones by aquaculture requires the transformation of these discharges and

their exportation to achieve environmental, economic, and social sustainability. IMTA appears as a

possible solution to not only treat organic particulate and inorganic dissolved nutrients, but also to

produce other valuable crops. The integration of IMTA activities into coastal zone management will

require not only the demonstration of its economic feasibility, but also public acceptance through

education and government actions for developing appropriate regulations taking into consideration

the services provided by extractive species.

Seaweeds are autotrophic organisms that use sunlight to extract dissolved inorganic nutrients from

the water and produce biomass. For that reason, besides being a healthy and nutritious food, as well

as the source of compounds for other industrial applications, seaweeds are crucial elements for

sound ecosystem management. The sustainable exploitation of marine resources (e.g., fed

aquaculture of finfish and shrimp) will need to be balanced with the establishment of mass

production of seaweeds for the sustainable growth of aquaculture in the twenty-first century.

Seaweed aquaculture already represents 23% of the world’s aquaculture production and China is the

largest producer of seaweeds. Although cultivation techniques of seaweeds are well established,

‘marine agronomy’ is still in its infancy and seaweed potential of other countries, such as in European

countries, is far from being fully exploited.

Several projects in different parts of the world, including Europe like those presented in the session,

have now accumulated enough data to support the biological demonstration of the IMTA concept.

The next step is the scaling-up of the experimental systems to make the biological demonstration

at a commercial scale, and to document the economic and social advantages of the concept, which

will be key to convincing practitioners of mono-specific aquaculture to move toward IMTA practices.

Underlying this demonstration will be the development of a better understanding of the major


ecological interactions involved with IMTA systems. Working on appropriate food safety regulatory

and policy frameworks in the respective countries will be essential for enabling the development of

commercial scale IMTA operations in a more universal fashion.

IMTA farms should be engineered by IMTA-specific modelling tools as complete systems, rather than

as clusters of different crops, to maximize the benefits of the complementing ecological functions of

the different species toward the profitability of the entire operations. Economic analyses need to be

inserted in the overall modelling of IMTA systems as they get closer to commercial scale and their

economic impacts on coastal communities are better understood. It will then be possible to add

profitability and economic impacts to the comparison of the environmental impacts between IMTA

and monoculture settings. These models will need to be sensitized for the most volatile parameters

and explicit assumptions so as to develop models for IMTA systems with built-in flexibility to be

tailored to the environmental, economic, and social particulars of the regions where they will be

installed. They could be modified to estimate the impact of organic and other eco-labels, the value of

bio-mitigation services, the savings due to multitrophic conversion of feed and energy which would

otherwise be lost, and the reduction of risks by crop diversification and increased social acceptability.

There is still a large amount of education required to bring society into the mindset of

incorporating IMTA into their suite of social values. Some of the social surveys conducted in Canada

indicate that the general public is in favour of practices based on the ‘recycling concept’. Whether

this will translate into a greater appreciation of the sustainable ecological value of the concept, a

willingness to support it tangibly with their shopping money, and demands to their elected

representatives will be the ultimate test. The degree to which researchers and extension people

become creatively involved with this educational component will be vital to the success of IMTA

practices.

The ecological, engineering, economic, and social challenges remaining to be solved are for some

maybe daunting. However, the goal is to develop modern IMTA systems, which are bound to play a

major role worldwide in sustainable expansion of the aquaculture operations of tomorrow, within

their balanced ecosystem, to respond to a worldwide increasing seafood demand with a new

paradigm in the design of the most efficient food production systems.

Technologies for Sustainable Aquaculture Production (SUSTAINAQUA) Chairs: Alexandra Oberdieck (Germany) and Muki Shpigel (Israel)

The future of aquaculture lies in multi-disciplinary cooperation

Aquaculture has developed rapidly over the last decades, due to the combination of strongly

increasing demand for seafood products and depleted fish stocks in the world's oceans. In order to

achieve a healthy and truly sustainable development of the sector, aquaculture needs to be

environmentally sound, economically viable and socially acceptable.

Ultimately, each aquaculture farmer, in both the marine and freshwater aquaculture industry, faces

the same challenges: how to reuse water most efficiently and improve wastewater treatment to

decrease its discharges? How to use feed more effectively and reduce nutrients in the effluent? How

to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels to benefit the environment and to reduce costs? How to


meet all the legal requirements and restrictions, demonstrate to consumers that the cultured

products are of the highest quality, produce in environmentally friendly systems, generate sufficient

income for the farmer, and secure the jobs of employees?

The session "Technologies for sustainable aquaculture (SustainAqua)" aimed to answer several of

these questions. With a focus on the EU project SustainAqua, co-funded by the European

Commission, researchers from all over the world presented a variety of technological and strategic

measures to upgrade different conventional aquaculture systems to more sustainable systems.

SustainAqua, with the overall aim to make the European

freshwater aquaculture industry more sustainable by improving

production methods, research potential market applications

and increase product quality, undertook five different case

studies in Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands, Denmark and

Switzerland. These were representative of the most relevant freshwater aquaculture systems and

fish species in Europe: from extensive and semi-intensive pond systems, which predominate in

Central and Eastern Europe, to intensive recirculation aquaculture systems (RAS) in operation in

North-Western Europe. The session also included technologies and strategies for marine systems

from Israel to New Zealand.

Two paths to a common goal

From the session it was abundantly clear that the future trends in sustainable aquaculture will be in

polyculture, multi-trophic and recirculation systems that will differ in their specific design depending

on local conditions and species used. These sustainable solutions combine environmental advantages

with economic viability. They range from pond-in-pond systems – to preserve the environmental

values of traditional pond aquaculture while increasing the productivity – to integrated systems

which can produce several fish species, diverse plants, and other products, from crustaceans, and

abalone to tropical fruits, tomatoes and bio-fuel crops. Another trend is the use of intensive

recirculation systems which have several advantages ranging from a low input of fresh water, and

minimum wastewater discharge to full traceability and high quality, thus conforming to consumer

demands for healthy and sustainable fish products.

Summarised, these solutions represent two (distinct) strategies: one that reuses nutrients for

additional by- and co-products and reduces wastewater discharges at the same time. The other is the

efficient, high-scale production in recirculating systems that maximises yields with minimum input

and discharges compared to other systems and that can ensure full traceability of the product.

Future challenges and research needs

A major challenge to overcome is the economic side of such systems. Traditional, polyculture and

multi-trophic systems can clearly prove their environmental credentials. However, the economic and

market side of the coin still needs to be developed in many cases: European consumers need to get

used to new products such as abalone, new processed products must be developed, as in the case of

carp.


The discussions also revealed a lack of networks in Europe, especially in the field of multi-trophic

aquaculture and recirculating systems. In this respect, the lack of published results from European

research projects was criticised.

Last, but not least, a decisive keyword for the future work in the aquaculture sector is

multidisciplinary cooperation: firstly to further develop technologies to be as cost-effective and

environmentally friendly as possible, and secondly to ensure professional marketing and full

traceability. Researchers, producers and salesmen need to work hand in hand to overcome the

bottlenecks, improve the image of aquaculture and provide consumers with healthy, tasty and

sustainable seafood.

SustainAqua is at http://www.sustainaqua.org/

EAS Student Group Workshop Chair: Goncalo Santos (The Netherlands)

The student workshop was organised in two

main sections. The first focused on aspects

related with student opportunities provided

by the European Aquaculture Society -

Student Group (EAS-SG) and AQUA-TNET

project. In the second part of the workshop

presentations focused on important skills that

students should master during their PhD.

After the workshop, the General Assembly of

the EAS-SG took place, followed by a general

discussion.

During the first part, an overview of the EAS-Student Group was presented to the participants. It

provided a look at the formation of the Student Group, with a summary of the events (workshops

and field trips) organized by the EAS-SG in the last years. Then, a plan for the future of EAS-SG was

presented. This included the expansion of the network of national coordinators and local student

committees, to increase the amount of travel grants to students that wish to attend conferences and

the organization of more specialised workshops and seminars for students. Additionally some ideas

were put forward on how to strengthen and expand the network within EAS students and between

EAS-SG and other international associations.

A presentation of the European thematic network for Aquatic sciences (AQUAT-NET) was also

presented in which the opportunities for students in the network domain were explained. This

includes a dedicated stakeholder work package that has been set up for students, to highlight their

most pressing needs, with the aim to improve the interaction and communication between students

from all areas of the AQUA-TNET domain and education. It was mentioned that this effort promotes

the symbiotic relationship between students and educational providers ensuring course design and

content is fit for purpose and relevant to students’ requirements. Activities developed in other work

http://www.sustainaqua.org/


packages directly relevant for students were also presented, such as the increased cooperation in

European Masters programmes and PhD curriculum development; measures to improve student

mobility; innovation in teaching, such as e-learning and ICT technologies and their role in joint

degrees and new methods of language training, promoting language diversity.

In the second part of the workshop the first presentation gave an overview to the students on how

they can plan and manage their PhD project in an effective manner. The factors that lead to a

successful completion of a PhD project were mentioned and how to act in the different stages of the

PhD to work more efficiently and setting personal work plan. It was also mentioned the part of the

PhD study is about acquiring the right set of skills for the future career.

The second presentation dealt with how students can “stand out of the crowd” with effective poster

presentations. Poster presentations can be a very effective way to present scientific work, provided

that certain aspects are considered. This presentation covered those aspects using practical

examples. A practical exercise, consisting of evaluating posters presented at AE2009 was then

performed and discussed.

The last presentation of the workshop addressed one of the most important aspects in science and

also to students which is to publish a paper. An editor of a peer reviewed journal gave insight about

the publishing process and provided students with relevant tricks on how to increase the chances of

publishing a paper.

The workshop was followed by the general assembly of the EAS-SG in which the new board was

presented, followed by a discussion. Students gave a good feedback on the content of the workshop.

It was appreciated by the students that the workshop was included in the programme of the

conference. In addition, students also mentioned that they would like that such type of workshops

could also be organised in a larger format 2-3 days workshop) to give allow more time for subjects to

be further developed and other important subjects to be addressed. They also gave suggestions on

how to increase the awareness of the EAS-SG among the student community. Overall the workshop

was attended by 40 to 60 students.

Aquaculture Governance, Policy and (Socio-) Economic Research Chairs: Selina Stead (UK) and Torgeir Edvardsen (Norway)

This short morning session comprised four presentations that reflected different aspects of

governance and support to policy.

The opening presentation by co-chair Selina Stead provided an overview of social sciences and

specifically case studies on interdisciplinary research on coral reef systems under management

scenarios, environmental variability, and human actions. Social science methods can link coral reef

ecosystem science to governance, which is of central importance to managing human behaviour in

an ecosystem context. Selina considered some of the reasons why mixed methods may currently be

in the ascendancy and identified opportunities and risks attached to these for researchers.


Øystein Hermansen of NOFIMA then presented the current trends in capture based aquaculture

(CBA) with the example of integrating traditional harvesting of cod with aquaculture. Cod CBA shares

characteristics with tuna CBA as it targets relatively large fish, rather than juveniles. The fishery has

primarily targeted immature cod of 2-3 Kg. Live fish are placed in net pens where they acclimatize to

captivity and are fed for about six months. These “adolescent” fish have a good growth potential, and

during this period they nearly double their weight. The presentation focussed on CBA as way of

improving the cost position, and how costs in CBA limit this way of producing cod. It concluded by

purposing further studies to improve our understanding of how CBA can contribute to higher

production and better quality.

Diego Mendiola then presented a case study of the development plan for aquaculture in the Basque

Country of Spain. In 2006, aquaculture production from the Basque region only contributed 0.3% of

the total national fish production. The Basque Aquaculture Plan offers accessibility to the companies

and investors interested in developing aquaculture in the region. Its contents describe state of the

art developments, regulatory considerations, market and RTD tendencies and strategies, SWOT

analysis, technological planning (species, systems), local resources (stakeholders for investment,

research or education in aquaculture developments)and ICZM studies based on specific proposals. Its

recommendations represent the outcomes of a series of transparent meetings, interviews and

consensus activities carried out between the main stakeholders from the region and the Public

Administration. 22 strategic specific actions and 12 different tentative coastal locations for installing

aquaculture production farms are proposed.

Finally, Bernard Walrut, a regular contributor of legal issues at AE meetings, presented the status of a

recent decision of the Supreme Court of British Columbia has held that finfish aquaculture in coastal

waters even when contained in nets or pens in the sea constitutes a part of the local fishery or is a

fishery. That is notwithstanding that those activities do not involve the taking of ferae naturae, the

essence of a fishery, but simply maintaining and taking at will animals contained in nets, pens or

cages in the sea.

The session concluded that social sciences are under-represented in aquaculture development and

that our understanding behaviour at individual level is lacking. Aquaculture arguably plays on an

unlevel playing field within coastal zone management and the discussion concluded that we need to

promote more ways to engage social sciences in aquaculture, possibly through the development of a

“needs list” that could be used by research planners and funders as a basis for future programmes or

through a specific collaborative network.

The European Aquaculture Technology and Innovation Platform (EATIP) now has social economics as

one of its Thematic Areas.


Life Cycle Management - Environment Chairs: Kjell Maroni (Norway) and Yves Harache (France)

Most communications presented were relying with the session addressing different aspects of the

interactions of a variety of environment parameters with the animal health, physiological comfort,

and overall rearing performances. They were considered good, and stimulated some interesting

discussions. Some of the results presented originated from excellent student works, showing a good

management of the research approach, as well as a constant will to look for practical applications of

the findings to the industry practices.

Two interesting papers focused at practical ways to manage early sexual maturation of fish in

aquaculture.

- Appropriate shading of various intensity and photoperiod regimes applied to Cod (Gadus morhua) reared in tanks have been shown to successfully inhibit early maturation of cod, as already shown in several species., leading to practical questions about the applicability in rearing cages, with real technology research challenges.

- A practical non invasive way of separating the early maturing Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) using simple applications of the sexual dimorphism characteristics during an “anabolic window” in june-july (bigger but not longer fish), has been presented. 70% of the early maturing are concentrated in 30% of the population. The development of “on farm tools” allows to separate a high proportion of these fish. The use of of a shorter light window in march may reduce the rate of early maturing fish, requiring adapted new technologies.

The effects of basic environment parameters like water temperature & salinity, oxygen

concentration, current water velocity and light intensity on “physiological comfort” or anatomic

integrity of farmed aquatic species (both freshwater, marine temperate or topical fish and shrimps)

were discussed in 5 communications.

- Atlantic salmon smolts adapt to repeated moderate hypoxia but stress level (as indicated by cortisol levels in water) and overall rearing performances are affected. Feed intake is reduced during hypoxia periods, with some compensatory effects when oxygen levels return to normal. The occurrence of skin ulcers, as well as global disease resistance is reduced.

- The salinity tolerance of a new Asian marine tropical species: the Sandbass (Psammoperca waigensis) spawning in May-June at two years has been established for broodstock management, with reference to oestradiol and testosterone hormones cycles.

- Reproductive performances of the tropical Blue shrimp (Litopenaeus stylirostris) can be dramatically improved when providing better “physiological comfort” during critical low temperature periods. This resulted in the definition of a conditioning procedure to higher temperatures and lower salinity during the maturation phase in hatcheries, providing better survival, higher spawning frequency and post larvae production. Results transferred and applied by the industry.

- Feed intake and Specific growth rate of large Atlantic salmon smolts (170g) can be improved when submitting the fish to low light intensity during night periods. Similar effects have been observed when using constant 24 hours light regimes.

- Skeletal malformation rate of juvenile cods (lordosis) increases when the fry is exposed to high water velocity, indicating a faster muscle development than bone development at higher temperatures. Observations of fish ventricle weight increase were also attributed with high water speed velocity in tanks.


The effects of dynamic feeds and of the use of traditional medicinal plants on fish health have been

discussed in two interesting papers.

- Rearing performances of Atlantic salmon can be improved when submitted to “dynamic feed regimes”, changing with the stage of development and the seasonal requirements. Resistance of post smolts (1+ or 0+) to IPN infection after seawater transfer and subsequent osmotic stress can be reduced when using specific functional feeds.

- Traditional Indian medicinal plant seed component (Achyrantes aspera) added in the diet (0.5%) has been shown to increase the immunostimulation process in Carp (Cyprinus carpio), with an apparent stimulation of the antibody response against BSA infection.

A very interesting paper (dealing with wider and more complex interactions than the management of

environmental parameters alone) concluded to the lack of correlated responses of selection for

growth on the processing quality in two commercial fish species: Brown trout (Salmo trutta) and Sea

bass (Dicentrarchus labrax).

In total the session showed an interesting picture of various environmental – life stage/physiology

interactions, with obvious cross-over value between species in knowledge and hypothesis

construction for new experiments. With the industry spectacles on the question can always be raised

how the new knowledge can improve aquaculture performance, without compromising the health

and wellbeing of the cultivated species.

There is a significant research need for basic knowledge on interactions between the environment

and most cultivated species to give the industry a knowledge base as guidance to the optimal rearing

environment throughout the whole life cycle.


Offshore Aquaculture Engineering Chairs: Tim Dempster (Norway) and Michael Chambers (USA)

The session consisted of 13 presentations that covered a broad spectrum of topics related to the

biological and engineering challenges that fish farming systems face in exposed locations.

The session commenced with a presentation by Dr Østen Jensen (SINTEF Fisheries and Aquaculture)

on new engineering concepts for submersible cages systems. Submerged cages are typically seen as

strong candidates for fish farming in exposed locations as submergence to just 10 m depth means

that strong surface forces due to waves and currents in storms are reduced by 90%. Dr Jensen

presented the concepts for a submersible cage that was capable of controlled descent and descent.

Controlled ascent in particular is critical to ensure that fish with closed swim bladders (physoclists) do

not experience barotrauma during cage ascent. Model-scale testing of the cage concept in a flume

tank revealed that the proposed solution would withstand strong currents with the cage culture

volume largely intact.

The following three presentations (Dr Simone Mirto, Dr Win Watson, Øivind Korsøen) focused on a

similar theme: biological challenges for fish with closed swim bladders (physoclists: e.g. sea bass

and cod) in submerged systems. Dr Mirto presented evidence that the growth and welfare on sea

bass cultured in submerged cages was equal to or better than growth and welfare in standard

surface cages. Dr Watson presented detailed, high-resolution temporal data on the swimming and

feeding behaviours of Atlantic cod in submerged sea-cages at the University of New Hampshire’s

Open Ocean Aquaculture site. Behaviours of cod varied considerably among individuals, sizes of fish

and in relation to feeding and non-feeding times. Øivind Korsøen summarized the results of a trial to

determine safe lifting procedures for Atlantic cod in sea-cages to avoid significant stress from

barotrauma. The results suggested that cod behaviour was affected significantly by lifting of sea-

cages equivalent to a 40% pressure reduction, but that cod adapted their swimming behaviours to

cope with this stressor and were able to return to relatively normal behaviours 2-4 hours after these

lifts. Korsøen recommended that lifts equivalent to a 40% should be the maximum limit for safe

lifting.

The following three presentations (Michael Chambers, Dr Tim Dempster, Dr Frode Oppedal)

discussed biological challenges for fish with open swim bladders (physostomes: e.g. sea trout and

salmon) in submerged systems. All three presentations presented data on the coping strategies of

salmonids under submergence when they have no surface access and are unable to re-fill their open

swim bladders by gulping air from the surface. Salmonids therefore become heavier over time as

their swim bladders lose air through leakage. These fish adapted their behaviours to cope by

swimming faster and schooling more tightly. Growth and welfare was not affected by submergence

with the cage roof at shallow depths for up to 3 weeks during summer, but longer term (6 week)

submergences to deeper depths (roof at 10 m) in the darkness of winter proved to negatively impact

growth and welfare parameters. The three presentations suggested that short-term submergences

may be an appropriate strategy to avoid short-term negative events in surface waters (e.g. storms,

jellyfish and phytoplankton blooms, and poor temperature or oxygen conditions).

Dr Asbjørn Bergheim presented data on an oxygenation system used to improve oxygen levels in

sea-cages during specific operations at the farm that may reduce oxygen to sub-optimal levels. Dr

Jana Guenther presented the results of investigation into the fouling of salmon cages by the hydroid


Ectopleura larynx. E. larynx coverage was highly variable with depth and cage, which was also

dependant on the washing strategies undertaken at farms. Laboratory experiments revealed that if

washing did not completely remove the hydroids, re-growth was rapid. As a result, Dr Guenther

recommended that washing strategies should be improved to achieve greater removal of hydroids

rather than the current partial removal.

Lars Gansel and Dr Øystein Patursson presented modelled and measured data relating to

hydrodynamic flows through and around fish farms. Flows through cages were significantly reduced

by the status of biofouling on nets, as they increased the ‘solidity’ of nets. Net deformation also

resulted in strong flows, significantly reducing the available culture volume for fish.

Dr Boaz Zion presented research on the behavioural memory of fish in response to acoustic training

for sea ranching. The main concept behind this work was to train fish to approach feeding stations

when a specific noise was transmitted through the water. Fish would then be fed by the automatic

feeder. If successful, the system will reduce the need for containment technology.

Finally, Martin Føre introduced new concepts regarding the use of ultrasonic tags in cultured fish

within sea-cages to provide information representative of the caged population (i.e. the ‘sentinel

fish’ concept). Føre presented a software interface that captured data from the tags, analysed data

and presented summary results in real time that would allow fish farmers to modify cage

management techniques if necessary.

Future recommendations

Participants recommended further development of submersible cage concepts that could ensure

controlled ascent and descent. In addition, significant technological development and engineering

research is required to better integrate feeding systems into submerged cages and solve complex

issues related to handling operations (dead-fish removal, biofouling, net changing etc.).

Discussion related to biofouling solutions focused on the potential to develop specialized micro- or

nano-textured surfaces on aquaculture nets that may deter settlement of common and problematic

fouling organisms such as hydroids and blue mussels, which currently represent considerable cost to

the industry.

Finally, participants agreed that as cage systems become larger and oxygen may become a limiting

factor, studies of hydrodynamic flows through and around fish farms will provide key data for

designing cage configurations that maximize oxygen supplies to fish.


Microbiology in Aquaculture Systems Chairs: Jorunn Skjermo (Norway) and François- Joël Gatesoupe (France)

The session was devoted to the ways for improving microbial management in aquaculture systems,

including microbiota associated with farmed animals. Two main modes of administration were

considered, either via the feed, or directly into the rearing water. Among the tools of management

are the nutrients - both for the host and beneficial microbiota – besides non-nutritive feed additives

like immunostimulants. Live beneficial microbes can be added both in feed and in the rearing system.

Microalgae have many relevant roles as feed for filter-feeders, as producers of immunostimulants

and antimicrobial compounds, possibly hosting beneficial bacteria, and also improving water quality.

Still rarely studied in Europe, herbal medicines deserve further attention to treat the animals and

their environment. All these kinds of treatment need to be evaluated, and possibly combined to

optimising the protection against pathogens. It is essential to diversify the modes of antimicrobial

activities coming directly from treatments with antagonistic compounds or microbes, or from

beneficially oriented microbiota, or from the immune response of the host, which can be stimulated

by specific treatments, or by compounds produced during feed digestion. The best precaution

against infection lies in the coalition of concomitant actions coming from several sides, which leaves

the pathogen few chances to develop resistance.

The main innovations presented in this session were about new tools developed for basic research.

The first results about successful gnotobiotic rearing of fish larvae like seabass (Gunasekara et al.)

and cod (Forberg et al.) are promising for better understanding of the interaction with microbiota.

Also the use of fluorescent probes and con-focal microscopy are progressing, allowing more efficient

tracking in-situ specific microbes – pathogens and probiotics – inside the gut and other organs

(Rekecki et al.). Further insights into the mechanisms were shown, especially about quorum sensing

inhibition (Natrah et al.) and immunostimulation (Lazado et al.). There are new evidences of the

effect on gut microbiota dietary manipulations (Martinez-Manzanares et al., Desai et al.) and of the

always-increasing proportion of vegetable protein sources in the feed (Refstie et al.). Progresses

appeared also in applied aspects, like the propositions of new probiotics (Tapia-Paniagua et al.), and

new prebiotics (De Schryver et al.), substrates that are selectively digestible by a few beneficial

microbes.

These results are quite encouraging, but many research efforts are still required to achieve a

sustainable management of microbiota. The gnotobiotic studies should be pursued throughout

metamorphosis in fish and molluscs, to allow a complete view of the ontogenesis of the functional

interactions between microbes and the host. So far, to our knowledge, there has not been yet any

report about gnotobiotic rearing shrimps other than Artemia, and this should deserve further

attention. The introduction of compound diets in axenic conditions should open the way to

nutritional studies. This may help to understanding the mechanisms of action and the active

molecules, which remain unknown in many cases.

The greatest challenge may concern applied aspects, because the findings at a laboratory scale

should be confirmed in farm conditions, where it is not easy to obtain scientifically valid results.

Considerable research effort should be addressed to assessing dose responses, and the risks for

human handling and consumption, and for the environment. This should pave the way for the last

but not least challenge, the official approval for commercial products proposed to fish farmers.


Shellfish Aquaculture Chairs: Kjell Inge Reitan (Norway) and Cedric Bacher (France)

Shellfish aquaculture (bivalves, crustaceans) plays an important role in seafood production and the

global market for aquaculture will go on increasing.

Several concerns and issues have been identified: space limitation require that new sites be

investigated, water quality (harmful algae blooms, eutrophication, pollution) sometimes threatens

aquaculture productivity, coexistence with other users may generate conflicts, variability of the

environment (temperature, phytoplankton production) and abnormal events (mass mortality) make

shellfish growth and production vary substantially over time and space. There is also some evidence

that shellfish aquaculture (broadly speaking) may impact on ecosystem: examples are given of

invasion of cultivated species in some areas (e.g. Pacific oysters), degradation of the environment

due to intensive pond aquaculture (e.g. shrimp aquaculture). Interactions between ecosystem,

cultivated species and farmer practices therefore are a key to sustainable aquaculture and are

addressed in research projects.

Carrying capacity studies have been developing along with experimental work on ecosystem

functioning and increasing number of applications of mathematical models. New generations of

models are being used to explain interactions at the ecosystem level, predict growth of cultivated

species and assess impact of aquaculture on the ecosystem functioning. Efforts are being undertaken

to move from simple models (e.g. individual based model) to more integrated and sophisticated (e.g.

ecosystem and hydrodynamics models), but the ultimate and unachieved goal is the assessment of

social carrying capacity which links the socio-economic to the ecological factors and is essential for

the acceptability of aquaculture by society and for its economic viability.

Operational tools for shellfish farmers are needed to help making decisions: where can one setups

farms, how much can be produced, what is the most appropriate design with respect to quality and

quantity of the end-product. Such tools need to integrate temporal as well as spatial information on

the environment (e.g. food concentration, current velocity). They must associate models, Geographic

Information Systems, remote sensing and they must allow end-users to play with scenarios and test

technical solutions.

Decision support tools are also needed to assess the impact of aquaculture and how changes of

ecosystem functioning would affect aquaculture, to minimize the impact of aquaculture on the

environment, help in zoning aquaculture areas with respect to other uses. Such tools must involve

and be designed with end-users and decision makers to meet their requirements.

Efforts have to be maintained to investigate interactions between shellfish and ecosystem at

different levels: individual level (e.g. growth variability, health, density/growth/mortality linkages),

farm level (e.g. nutrient recycling, biodeposition, physical interactions between farm structure and

surrounding waters, production), ecosystem level (e.g. interactions with wild species, environmental

threats like HABs, effect of climate change, propagation of pathogens). Such efforts require :

experimental work on ecophysiology to collect data and improve and parameterize generic models

for various species, mesocosm and field studies to evaluate ecosystem processes and characteristics

(e.g. primary production, role of benthic/pelagic interfaces, nutrient cycling, habitat mapping,

hydrodynamics) and to build ecosystem approach and integrated models.


Transfer of knowledge and tools require close collaboration between scientist, managers and

farmers. Applied projects must include groups of end-users and decision-makers to ensure that the

tools developed are operational (e.g. can be used to optimise aquaculture development in practice).

Computer sciences must also be associated to applied projects for the building of operational tools.

EU Forum Chair: Stamatis Varsamos (European Commission)

The European Union (EU) was shaped to ascertain long-term peace

between its member states and neighbouring countries within a

context of rapidly evolving global challenges. The European

integration is a dynamic process and Science has always been one of

the most suitable vehicles to achieve this integration, mainly because

cooperation in research is a key for achieving breakthroughs in knowledge and for transforming this

into scientific advice, innovation, economic growth and general improvement of our quality of life.

Today, EU possesses three key funding instruments to support research and innovation: the Research

Framework Programme (currently the seventh: FP7), the Cohesion policy which is funded through

the Structural Funds and Cohesion Fund, and the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework

Programme. The European aquaculture sector is one of the many important socio-economic sectors

covered by the EU’s funding instruments for research and technological development. It has a high

potential for innovation and technological development and is supported by a very active research

community (driven by public and industrial stakeholders).


The annual conference organised by the European Aquaculture Society is one of the few events that

provide a comprehensive overview of recent advances in the large range of scientific and

technological disciplines which are encompassed by aquaculture research. For one more time, the

EAS AE2009 conference has hosted an EU Forum which has allowed communicating on the support

that the European Union provides for the sustainable development of aquaculture by funding

research related activities in this sector. This support is implemented through an integrated approach

aiming at filling the gaps in knowledge, building capacities and critical mass for research, supporting

the industry and promoting international cooperation based on the principle of mutual interest and

benefit. The EU actions in this field intend to maximise synergies between Member States and

Community efforts, to improve the dialogue between the scientific community, industry, policy

makers and relevant stakeholders, to stimulate public and private investment in research

technological development and innovation (RTDI) and to promote knowledge transfer and

innovation.

The EU Forum held during the Aquaculture Europe 2009 event presented an overview of the

opportunities offered in FP7 for aquaculture-related RTDI activities, including the KBBE initiatives, as

well as those specifically aiming at supporting SMEs. In addition this year the EU Forum has also

focused on some of the sectoral EU policies of relevance for aquaculture, including the Common

Fisheries Policies (in particular the recently revised EU strategy for the sustainable development of

the European aquaculture, presented by Mr JC Cueff, Head of the Unit dealing with aquaculture in

DG MARE), the Food & Feeds Safety Policy, the Animal Health Policy and the Animal Welfare Policy

(presented by DG SANCO).

AE2009 was a good opportunity to review recent scientific and technological breakthroughs in the

field, often supported through EU initiatives and funds. Despite the continuous progress and

advances in aquaculture research, there is a common acknowledgement of the lack of sufficient

funding, the lack of an environment to stimulate research and exploit results, as well as, of the

fragmented nature of activities, the dispersal of resources and, still in some cases, the duplication of

effort.

Overcoming these structural shortcomings, common in most of the

fields of research in Europe, and unlocking the potential of research

and innovation, are the main objectives of the European Research

Area (ERA), which constitutes the cornerstone of the policies

developed by DG RTD. The aim of the ERA is to make reality the "Fifth

Freedom" across Europe: free circulation of researchers, knowledge

and technology. According to the 2020 Vision “the ERA provides

attractive conditions and effective and efficient governance for doing research and investing in R&D

intensive sectors in Europe. It creates strong added value by fostering a healthy Europe-wide

scientific competition whilst ensuring the appropriate level of cooperation and coordination. It is

responsive to the needs and ambitions of citizens and effectively contributes to the sustainable

development and competitiveness of Europe.” The aquaculture-related scientific community is an

important component of the developing Marine and Maritime ERA and is expected to play an

important role in its successful implementation throughout Europe and beyond.


Life Cycle Management – Animal Chairs: Elin Kjorsvik (Norway) and Bela Urbanyi (Hungary)

Of the 10 oral presentations selected for this session, only 3 speakers actually presented. Their

presentations were of high quality with clear explanation of methods and results. However, all oral

presentations for this session could easily have been placed in other sessions of the conference, and

the feeling of a session consisting of “leftovers”, with also a very small audience could have been

avoided. The scopes of the two ‘Life Cycle Management’ sessions were overlapping some papers

were moved from the ‘Animal’ to the ‘Environment’ section for some reason. It could probably have

worked better with fewer and longer sessions.

In the poster section, 17 posters were presented, but showed great deviation in terms of their

implementation and thus their distinctness.

The session covered a large field of research, thus it could not be expected to present some well

comparable, specific works. The fact that the topic of posters had showed a great diversity, too,

could also be the result of these broad and partly overlapping frames: from the subject of artificial

propagation through nutrition to changes of physiological parameters of fish and other organisms of

water. This could be changed in the future: distinct frames could be appointed within

research/scientific fields, and oral and poster presentations acceptable within a section should also

be assigned.

The session chairs therefore make some proposals for future conferences:

To improve participation from Eastern-Central-European countries, it could be important to create some sessions which ensure a more positive presentation of aquaculture results of these countries: eg. Carp culture, Genetics and breeding of freshwater fishes.

Broad and potentially overlapping topics for parallel sessions should be avoided. Fewer (and possibly longer) sessions are preferable.


A special thanks to our Local Organising Committee and our Students

Motivated, willing and friendly students are one of the success criteria for Aquaculture Europe events.

AE2009 was lucky to have a great team, under the coordination of Alexandra Neyts – second from the left.


The AE2009 President’s Reception


Multifactorial Disease Chairs: Grete Bæverfjord (Norway) and Patrick Smith (UK)

Session sponsored by Intervet Schering-Plough Animal Health

The Multifactorial Disease Session was well-attended and stimulated active discussion. The

introduction of three substitute papers revived the session and gave the session a main theme of

abnormalities and deformities which following the successful control of many major bacterial

diseases of farmed fish represents a new and significantly important area of fish health.

Thus the opening paper presented by Aemer Shehzed from Nofima Marin (Norway) described the

prevalence and genetic variation of epicarditis and cardiac abnormalities in farmed Atlantic salmon

which appears to be an increasing problem. Other papers presented by Kirsti Hjelde and Elisabeth

Ytteborg from Nofima Marin described the development of spinal deformities in farmed Atlantic cod

and the mechanisms of temperature –induced vertebral deformities in A. salmon, respectively.

Two substitute papers, also from the skeletal deformities research group in Nofima Marin, were

presented. Synnøve Helland presented results from a feeding experiment on A. salmon, where it was

demonstrated that dietary zinc may be a limiting factor for normal skeletal development in this

species. Procedures for production of underyearling A. salmon smolts were addressed by Grete

Baeverfjord, and the results indicated the potential adverse effects on growth rates and skeletal

development in this production, if too much pressure is put on shortening of the cycle. Altogether,

these presentations underlined the importance of treating skeletal development with some concern,

especially from a welfare aspect.

On the subject of more general infectious diseases and the response of fish to such diseases a

presentation by Chris Gould of Intervet Schering Plough provided background to the vaccination

strategies currently employed for the prevention of Yersiniosis and the emergence of a new biotype

and a specific vaccine against it.

Finally two papers from the University of Ghent presented by Peter Bossier described the effect of

dose and challenge routes of Vibrio spp on co-infection with the white Spot Virus in the shrimp

Penaeus vannamei and the novel use of Heat Shock proteins in inducing resistance to Yersinia ruckeri

in the Platyfish Xiphoporus maculates. Such an approach may provide a means of non-specific

protection in fish too small to actively vaccinate of for which a vaccine is currently not available.


EAS Thematic Group EUROSHELL: SRA for the European Shellfish Sector Chairs: Aad Smaal (The Netherlands) and René Robert (France)

The main outcome of the session was that consensus has been achieved for

the elaboration of the Euroshell Strategic Research Agenda. On the basis of

an evaluation of the current situation in shellfish cultivation in each

European country, advantages and constraints, problems and issues, the

strategic agenda will be prepared, presented and discussed at EAS AE2010

event in Porto. An international steering committee was formed to

facilitate the process and act as national contact points.

During the session 10 communications and 6 posters were presented. The

session was complementary to the shellfish session on Sunday and the IMTA session on Saturday.

The presentations can be grouped in two main research avenues:

Part I. Carrying capacity studies and modelling tools.

This field of research has been developed through 4 communications and 1 poster

C1: G. Burnell: An ecosystem approach to shellfish Aquaculture and its integration within

shellfisheries management. An overview of the methods used to estimate primary

productivity and shellfish production in different locations and how such tools including

sources of conflict and aspects of governance can help shellfisheries management in Ireland.

C2: R. Pastres, J.G. Ferreira: The role of models for the sustainable management of shellfish

farming.An overview of the methods used to predict mollusc growth at different scales, from

large bays to farms, and the interest to couple such method to economical analysis.

C3: P. Cranford et al: Food depletion by mussel aquaculture: spatial scale and indicators of

production and ecological carrying capacity. This dedicated study of primary production in

Hogfjord (Norway) and along the coastal embayment of Prince Edward Island (Canada) using

a continuous recorder device (BIO-Acrobat) and a high resolution synoptic 3-D mapping

showed clearly the impact of mussel culture on food depletion and the importance of the

picoplankton fraction in mussel nutrition.

C4: R. Pastres et al: Environmental sustainability of offshore shellfish aquaculture assessment

using integrated model. A target study of environmental sustainability of suspended

cultivation in southern Portugal (Cascais) based on hydrobiological data set, water and

sediment quality indicators and literature predicted model growth of three species of

mollusc (cupped oyster, blue mussel, King scallop). Acceptability of the activity has been

discussed with different stakeholders while social carrying capacity has been also assessed

using direct and indirect impacts.

P1: D. Melaku Canu et al: Integrated model for clam farming in the lagoon of Venice. A target

study of carrying capacity of the bay of Venice coupled to biological, ecological and

economical models to allow sustainability of clam farming in this area.

KEY conclusion: Need multi approached disciplinary and integrated modelling for sustainability of

shellfish cultivation and sea shore management.


Part II. Shellfish spat supply through management of natural collection and improvement of

hatchery technology.

This field of research has been developed through 5 communications and 3 posters

C6: R. Robert: Review on European hatchery-nursery developments. A synthesis of the

mollusc species produced in Europe-wide hatchery-nursery and importance of these

companies in shellfish seed supply.

C7: R. Robert et al: Ecophysiological and biochemical responses of Ostrea edulis broodstock

fed four different single diets during conditioning. This work examined on an

ecophysiological and biochemical approaches the effective assimilation of four different diets

during flat oyster conditioning, the allocation of essential biochemical components to the

gonad and the impact of these diets on larval development. Chaetoceros gracilis were

particularly efficient for broodstock and larval development while Tetraselmis suecica

showed low interest for reproduction and subsequent larval development.

C8: J. Marchetti et al: Optimizing culture conditions for continuous production of Isochysis

affinis galbana in a new commercial hatchery photobioreactor. The optimization of one

major microalgae used worldwide in mollusc hatcheries was examined using different

innovative methods (thoric flat panel, TIP tool, 120L compacted photobioreactor) and

showed that T. Iso growth was optimized at 28°C, pH = 7 and light = 450 µmole.m-2.s-1 and

0.9 d-1 dilution rate. In these environmental conditions maximum productivity (20 * 106 ml-

1) was 10 fold that of batch culture in similar volume.

C9: G. Christophersen et al: The challenge of reducing the production time of juvenile

scallops Pecten maximus intended sea ranching. To allow better subsequent on growing in

the fields the production of King scallop spat in hatchery and outdoor nursery in Norway

were presented. Optimized controlled conditions of food and temperature for broodstock

conditioning, larval development and postlarval development reduced significantly the

duration of early phases and gave a better synchronization with the good conditions of the

natural surroundings.

G 10: P. Kamermans et al: New technology to provide seed for bottom culture of blue

mussels Mytilus edulis in the Netherlands. Because nature conservation regulation restrict

mussel seed harvesting from traditional areas in Holland, the efficiency of new collectors

(different types of suspended nets or ropes) was evaluated in two locations, the Wadden Sea

and Oosterschelde. To estimate settlement success larvae and spat on collectors were

regularly sampled each 14 d during five consecutive years and correlations between

phytoplankton abundance and mussel spat intensity attempted. Despite collector efficiency

spat collection was weak in Oosterschelde and might be explained by a poor larval

development as a result of low food quality.

P 11: M. Suquet et al: Sperm quality in diploid and tetraploid Pacific oysters Crassostrea

gigas. This dedicated study was carried out in order to characterize by several methods the

quality of tetraploid sperm used in hatchery for triploid oyster production. Compared to

diploids, tetraploids showed lower sperm production, lower motility, higher ATP intracellular

content, higher cyto morphogenic dimensions and a ratio of spz per oocyte 10 fold greater to

obtain maximum fertilization rate.

P12 : B. Petton et al: Small Volume flow-through containers for bivalve larval rearing. Five

litre flow through larval rearing devices were developed for the oyster Crassostrea gigas and


different hydrodynamic conditions applied in order to define the best technical procedures.

Upward seawater inflow, renewed at 180 % h-1 and coupled to 20 ml min-1of air injection

allowed the best oyster larval performances for density < 200 larvae ml-1.

P14: T. Magnesen et al: Presentation of the Settle project: bivalve conditioning and

settlement: keys to competitive hatchery production. EC, SP4-Capacities, FP7 SME-2007- 1

Grant agreement N° 222043. The objectives of the European project SETTLE concern

intensive hatchery production of great scallop and flat oyster and it consist in improving

conditioning and settlement of both species to increase spat production reliability.

Two other posters A. Epsmark et al: Factors to improve re-stocking of blue mussels Mytilus edulis

during harvesting and D. Toerring et al: Byssus attachment strength in long line cultured blue mussels

Mytilus edulis were both dedicated to the influence of different parameters such as temperature,

depth, mussel initial size, type of net on mussel attachment.

KEY conclusion: Complementary sources of seed for which biological knowledge and technological

improvement are in development.

Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) Chairs: Laszlo Varadi (Hungary) and Oliver Schneider (The Netherlands)

Of the 11 presentations planned for this session, one had to be cancelled since the speaker could not

obtain his visa for Norway on time. The gap was filled with a presentation by authors from

Wageningen UR on their experiences with the operation of recirculation aquaculture systems in

Europe. The session was well attended, with an average of 70-80 participants throughout.

The session comprised high level presentations from scientists in Denmark, France, Germany, Israel,

Netherlands and USA. From an overall view on RAS the main session focus shifted on the interaction

of different water treatment steps and their interaction either with water quality or the fish and its

growth performance and welfare. The covered treatment effects included ozonation, particle

management, heterotrophic management and membrane technology, and denitrification. The

reported research works included both marine and freshwater systems and species such as Nile

tilapia, rainbow trout, Atlantic salmon (smolt), sea bream and turbot.

As first presenter Catarina Martins (“Growth retardation in recirculating aquaculture systems: Myth

or reality?”) showed that despite the worse water quality of a nearly closed RAS (30 l/kg feed/day of

water exchange rate), Nile tilapia up to ±160g can be cultured without negative effect on feeding

motivation, stress response and growth performance. Despite the accumulation of substances, their

bioavailability may be reduced in nearly closed RAS.

After this first introduction to RAS, three presentations followed by S. Summerfelt and C. Good that

evaluated different treatment steps (ozonation, carbon dioxide management) from different angles

within the same system. The first presentation (Water quality and treatment process efficiencies in

replicated recirculating systems operated with and without ozonation) showed that water quality

within the low exchange RAS operated with O3 was approximately equal to or better than the water


quality achieved in the same RAS when operated at a makeup water flushing rate 10 times greater

and without O3. Rainbow trout growth, survival, health, and welfare results during this study were

reported in the next presentations (The effect of ozonation on water quality and the health and

performance of Rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss in low exchange water recirculating aquaculture

systems & health and performance of Rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss in low exchange water

recirculating aquaculture systems with high or low dissolved carbon dioxide). In these two

presentations Chris Good indicated that despite an increase in specific subclinical pathologies, water

ozonation in low-exchange RAS can improve water quality and overall rainbow trout performance as

they are reared to market size and that rainbow trout can be raised to market size in low-exchange

RAS with 25 mg/L dissolved CO2 without deleterious effects on their health and performance. The

etiology of the original fish health decline observed in low-exchange RAS remains unknown, and

further research will be carried out to investigate this phenomenon.

After this close look on trout the session moved on with investigations on another salmonid of high

interest: salmon smolts. Paul-Daniel Sindilariu presented on particle management in recirculating

smolt farms, equipped with improved moving bed technology and shared his findings on particle

distribution and particle management in an Atlantic salmon smolt recirculating facility. As a result, he

showed that particle management despite fine mesh filtration is still an issue in smolt farming and

that the overall axis of feed-fish-waste inside RAS still needs further improvement. Tackling issues on

particle management from another point of view Jaime Orellana presented on “The effect of ozone

on the amount, particle size distribution, and nutrient composition of total suspended solids in a

modern marine recirculation system”. The study confirmed that ozonation improves particle

aggregation and removal through foam stripping. However, the stability of aggregates is still poorly

understood (as experienced by occasional foam collapse and disintegration during and shortly after

feeding) and warrants further investigation.

A new view on water treatment inside RAS was presented By Prof. Gemenden who shared his views

on the application of membrane technology in recirculating aquaculture system combining

heterotrophic management and membrane technology in an MBR. As this process has to deal with

high biomass loads within the rearing tanks, fish culture possibilities are limited. Therefore efforts are

made to outsource the water cleaning process and operate a classical MBR.

After the focus on engineering the interaction of technology and fish had been brought back under

the audience’s attention by Stefan Reiser and his presentation on “Effects of ozone on welfare

indicators of juvenile turbot Psetta maxima in recirculation aquaculture systems”. He observed dose

responses relations between ozonation and fish welfare, which provided the basis for an impact

assessment on fish welfare and enabled to determine safe concentrations for routine ozone

application in marine aquaculture. Therefore, safeguarding good welfare in juvenile turbot, high OPO

(ozone produced oxidants) concentrations (i.e. ≥ 0.10mgl-1) should be avoided as ozone was

revealed to markedly alter parameters related to stress. According to the here presented results, an

OPO concentration of ≤ 0.06mgl-1 is assumed to represent a safe concentration for continuous ozone

application without impairing welfare in turbot aquaculture under his study conditions.

After this treatment-fish-interaction, the focus went towards the interaction of fish within RAS,

presented by Edward Schram on “Homo-typically conditioned rearing water affects weight variation

and possibly growth of juvenile turbot Scophthalamus maximus”. He showed that homo-typical

conditioning of rearing water by large turbot affects weight variation of juvenile turbot and is


suspected to affect SGR as well. The observed effects are possibly due to chemical signals released by

the large turbot. These substances can be counteracted by activated carbon filtration. More research

is needed to fully establish this intra-species interaction and understand its relevance for the

aquaculture industry. As replacement for the missing speaker, Oliver Schneider reported on

European RAS showing different examples and developments during the last 5 years. Next to the

positive developments he showed as well the pitfalls of the last years and pointed out that RAS as

sustainable production method is feasible and happening all over Europe.

The last presentation was given by Shalom Fox (“Development and optimization of a field scale

denitrification unit as part of a sustainable marine land based recirculated aquaculture system”). He

showed that the denitrification rate in a reactor integrated into a RAS was about 150g Nm-3 reactor d-

1, and the one-pass efficiency for nitrate was more than 95 %. He expects even an improvement in

the denitrification rate after optimizing the system further. Sludge removal in the process was more

than 50%. He showed further the advantage of a circulated effluent system as alkalinity was

produced during the denitrification process. This compensates alkalinity loss in the nitrification unit.

RAS sessions are always well attended at Aquaculture Europe events

In summary, it can be concluded that:

Growth retardation in RAS operated at low water exchange rate is size dependent for tilapia and not detectable in fish <160g.

Faeces particles and their removal in smolt RAS hatcheries are still a challenge.

Water treatment by Ozone reduces the need for make-up water and reduces pathogenic risks but it needs to handled with care, therefore more research is needed

MBR might present an alternative strategy for water treatment in RAS.

Denitrification reactors reduce make up water rates and allow for location independency of RAS.

There is interaction of turbots different age cohorts in RAS that influences growth and challenges therefore system design


Aquaculture Europe 2009 Poster Awards EAS recognises the value of poster presentations in its Aquaculture Europe events, and makes

awards (a voucher for the value of €250) for the Best Poster and the Best Student Poster.

AE2009 Best Poster The AE2009 Best Poster Award was awarded to Marianne ALUNNO-BRUSCIA1, C. BACHER2, Ø.

STRAND3, R. ROSLAND4, P. CRANFORD5, J. GRANT6 and Aad C.SMAAL7, of 1. Ifremer, Argenton-en-

Landunvez, France ; 2. Ifremer Plouzané, France ; 3. Institute of Marine Research, Bergen, Norway; 4.

University of Bergen, Norway; 5. Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Canada; 6. Dalhousie University,

Canada and 7. Wageningen IMARES, The Netherlands for their poster entitled MODELLING

Crassostrea gigas GROWTH AND REPRODUCTION IN DIFFERENT CONTRASTED ECOSYSTEMS BY

USING DYNAMIC ENERGY BUDGET THEORY

AE2009 Best Poster winners (l to r) Yves Bourlès (PhD student), Marianne Alunno-Bruscia

& Stéphane Pouvreau from the IFREMER lab at Argenton-en-Landunvez in France.


Abstract:

The mussel (Mytilus edulis) culture occurs in temperate waters around the world under a wide range

of environmental conditions, e.g. at phytoplankton concentrations below as 1-2 μg L-1 (in Norwegian

fjords) up to 9-10 μg L-1 (in French Atlantic coastal sites). Under such contrasted food resourcess, the

aim of our study is to develop a generic bio-energetic model for M. edulis, i.e. than can be applied in

various contrasted environments with a constant set of parameters, to simulate the mussel growth

and reproduction. Such a model will allow us to assess directly the links between mussel growth

performances and environmental parameters in different culture sites.

We used the Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory to relate mussel growth variability to

environmental conditions (temperature, trophic resources) among different sites. DEB theory

describes the uptake and use of energy and matter by an organism to achieve growth, maintenance,

development and reproduction (Kooijman 2000).The mussel-DEB model was built on ten main DEB

parameters (Rosland et al. subm.).

Mussel growth was simulated in several contrasted ecosystems in France (Mont Saint Michel and

Aiguillon Bays), in Norway (Flødevigen, Austevoll, Toskasundet fjords), in the Netherlands

(Oosterschelde estuary) and in Canada (Tracadie Bay). One DEB parameter, i.e. the half-saturation

coefficient Xk depends on food quality and therefore on ecosystems, was calibrated for each site in

order to evaluate the generality and the limits of the model. Both chlorophyll a and phytoplankton

enumeration were tested as food quantifiers to identify the most suitable one to quantify mussel

growth. Applying DEB model in contrasted ecosystems allowed us to explain mussel growth

variability among culture sites according to food quantity (e.g. chlorophyll a, phytoplankton

abundances and size classes) and quality (phytoplankton species), as well as seawater temperature.

Based on our results, we discuss the ways to improve the parametrization of the functional response

of the mussel to food availability.

Kooijman, S.A.L.M. 2000. Dynamic Energy and Mass Budgets in Biological Systems. Cambridge University Press, 2nd

Edition.

(3rd edition to appear in 2009 http://www.bio.vu.nl/thb/research/bib/kooy2009.pdf)

Rosland R., Strand Ø., Alunno-Bruscia M., Bacher C., Strohmeier T. Subm. Applying Dynamic Energy Budget (DEB) theory to

simulate growth and bioenergetics of blue mussels under low seston conditions. J. Sea Res., Special Issue “The AquaDEB

project”.


AE2009 Best Student Poster The AE2009 Best Student Poster Award was awarded to Marta Miñambres of the University of Vigo

in Spain for her poster entitled “EARLY DETERMINISM OF GROWTH RATE IN MYTILUS

GALOPROVINCIALIS SEED CULTURED IN LONG-LINE” and by A. Aghzar, M. Miñambres, A. Pita, M.

Pérez & P. Presa.

Abstract:

Growth of mussels in suspension is mainly dependent on the amount of food available and the

individual filtration rate (Page and Hubbard, 1987). It is believed that growth rate of small mussels is

faster than that of large mussels and reach commercial size at the same time (Lök et al., 2007). Due

to the higher mortality of slow-growing individuals, size selection can pass inadvertent when studying

growth rates in mussel cohorts (Pérez Camacho et al., 1991). This research addresses the growth

dynamics of distinct size-class seed from the same cohort of M. galloprovincialis. It aims to clarify if

early shell-size selection could serve at improving culture efficiency.

In May 2007 a cohort of wild mussel seed collected in Tetouan (Morocco) was classified into three

shell-length classes: small-size (0-20mm), intermediate-size (20-40mm), and large-size (40-60mm).

Each class of 100 individuals was wrapped into fishing net, attached to 5 m length ropes and

suspended in long-line. Growth was monitored every 20 days (four moments) between May 15tht,

2007 (≈120 days-old seed) and July 15th, 2007 (180 days-old seed). Length was measured on 50

individuals per bag using an electronic calliper (Mitutoyo IP67-0.01 mm accuracy) and compared

between or within sampling moments within or between size-classes, using Kruskall-Wallis test and

ANOVA.

From left to right, Pablo Presa, Marta Miñambres , Montse Pérez and Alfonso Pita. (Missing from the photo is Adil Aghzar, based in Morocco).


The comparison of each size-class between sampling moments showed that all the three size-classes

(0-20mm, 20-40mm, 40-60mm) differed significantly across moments in all parameters (Length,

Weight, and L/W ratio) Phenotypic classes differed significantly from each other in Length, Weight

and LW rate in the four moments monitored. The initially established small size-class and most of the

intermediate size-class seed remained disjoint until the end of the experiment. The upper 20%

fraction of the intermediate size-class (20-40mm) patently overlapped with the large size-class (40-

60mm) cloud after moment III (160 days-old seed) (Figure 1).

The fact that all size-classes differed from each other within the four moments in all growth

parameters indicates a general lack of transition between phenotypic classes and an early

determinism of individual growth dynamics. This result disagrees with previous studies on mussels

where small individuals grew faster than large mussels and reached commercial size at the same

time (Lauzon-Guay et al., 2005; Lök et al., 2007). The exception was the non significant difference in

growth rate between the upper tail (20%) of intermediate-size individuals and the lower tail of the

large-class in moments III and IV. These data indicate that not all individuals of a given cohort reach

the same final phenotypic performance at the same time, at least during early development. This

implies that mussel culturing in suspension systems would benefit from early selection of seed based

on shell length, depending on the commercial size pursued.

Lök, A., S. Acarl, S. Serdar, A. Kose, and Y. Harun. 2007. Growth and mortality of Mediterranean mussel Mytilus

galloprovincialis Lmk.,1819, in relation to size on long-line in Mersin Bay, Izmir (Turkey-Aegean Sea). Aquaculture Research

38 (8): 819-826.

Lauzon-Guay, J.S., M. Dionne, M.A. Barbeau, and D.J. Hamilton. 2005. Effects of seed size and density on growth, tissue to

shell ratio and survival of cultivated mussels (Mytilus edulis) in Prince Edward Island, Canada. Aquaculture 250: 652-665.

Page, H, and D.M. Hubbard. 1987. Temporal and spatial patterns of growth in mussels Mytilus edulis on an offshore

platform: relationships to water temperature and food availability. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 111:

159-179.

Pérez Camacho, A., G. González, and J. Fuentes. 1991. Mussel culture in Galicia (NW Spain). Aquaculture 94: 263-278.

The PDF files of both posters are at www.easonline.org

http://www.easonline.org/


The Lindsay Laird Award The AQUATT Board of Directors announced in September 2008 the establishment of an annual

student award to be entitled " THE LINDSAY LAIRD STUDENT AWARD for INNOVATION IN

AQUACULTURE", to be awarded for the most innovative poster submitted by a student at the

Aquaculture Europe events, and which concerns research in any one of the following areas:

Environmental Impacts in aquaculture

New species

Hatcheries/early life history

Stock production

Fish diseases

New technologies

Genetics/genomics

The award jury is made up of representatives of the AquaTT network and from industry. The Lindsay

Laird award consists of a certificate and a contribution (to the value of €500) towards the purchase of

a laptop of the winner's choice.

The second LINDSAY LAIRD Student Award

was awarded to Gonçalo Santos from the

Aquaculture and Fisheries Group of

Wageningen University in the Netherlands,

for his poster at Aquaculture Europe 2009,

entitled: "Effects of dissolved carbon dioxide

on energy metabolism and stress response in

European seabas (Dicentrarchus labrax)”,

and co-authored with J. W. Schrama, J.

Capelle, J.H.W.M. Rombout and J. A. J. Verreth

EAS president, Selina Stead, presented the

Award to Gonçalo at the AE2009 President’s

Reception and publisher Wiley offered

Gonçalo a book of his choice for a value of

€200.


The EAS Student Group Ibrahim Okumus Award For the first time in AE2009, another Poster Award was added.

This award honours the life of Professor Ibrahim Okumus (1960-2008)

of the Faculty of Fisheries in Rize University, Turkey, and is awarded by

the EAS Student Group.

Ibrahim was one of the scientific pioneers of Turkish aquaculture and

worked tirelessly to promote its sustainable development - at national

and international levels - and notably through the FAO European Inland

Fisheries Advisory Commission and through the EU.

He was a loyal and active member of EAS and was the programme co-chair of Aquaculture Europe

2007 in Istanbul. Several months before this important event, he was hospitalised, but came out

quickly and got straight back to work to help make the conference a success. He was also active in

many European initiatives and research projects. Despite his illness, Ibrahim put his candidature

forward to be a member of the 2008-2010 EAS Board of Directors. Such was his commitment to

aquaculture and to EAS.

The first edition of this prize was kindly sponsored by

the AKUA MAKS company in Turkey and the prize

(€300) was awarded to the best poster submitted by a

student at AE2009, judged on the criteria of the

presentation of the poster, its message and its

attractiveness to make delegates want to read it.

It was awarded to Francesco Pascoli of the University

of Padoa, Italy, for his poster entitled: “WHOLE BODY

CORTISOL AND EXPRESSION OF INDUCIBLE HSP70

mRNA DURING ONTOGENESIS OF SEA BASS

(Dicentrarchus labrax) SUBJECTED TO HEAT SHOCK”, by

D. Bertotto, F. Pascoli*, E. Negrato, C. Poltronieri, S.

Sivieri, G. Radaelli, and C. Simontacchi.

It is hoped that this award will be made on

a regular basis – and especially in Porto at

AE2010. The EAS Student Group would

therefore be more than happy to receive

pledges from potential sponsors for future

awards.

From left to right, Francesco Pascoli, Carlo Poltronieri, Giuseppe Radaelli, Elena Negrato and Daniela Bertotto.


See you at Aquaculture Europe 2010 EAS looks forward to welcoming you to our Aquaculture Europe 2010 event, taking place in the

wonderful city of Porto.

Following on from the highly successful Aquaculture Europe 2002 conference “Seafarming Today and

Tomorrow” held in Trieste, Aquaculture Europe 2010 will bring back the focus on the future of

marine aquaculture in Europe. As its theme suggests, the AE2010 conference will address many

topics related to island, coastal and ocean aquaculture, but it will also cover the production of

freshwater species.

Parallel conference sessions include land-based systems, estuarine, coastal

lagoon, coastal and offshore aquaculture and encompass many species from

shellfish to fish to marine plants.

AE2010 will also consider the specific issues related to production on

Mediterranean islands and in Europe’s Outermost Regions. A trade

exhibition, farmers’ day, the EAS General Assembly and other events will

complete the AE2010 event.

October 5-8, 2010, Porto, Portugal

More at www.easonline.org

http://www.easonline.org/

Documents

novel approaches for evolving needs - EUROSFAIREnovel approaches for evolving needs Summary Document of Aquaculture Europe 2009 . 2 ... pharmacology, toxicology, drug discovery and