been said about carbon sequestration and the development of carbon trading taxes.
In coastal environments, mechanisms for the recovering of nitrogen and phosphorus
should also be highlighted and accounted for in the form of nutrient trading credits
(NTCs), a much more positive approach than taxing. If the composition of seaweeds can be averaged at around 0.35% nitrogen, 0.04% phosphorus and 3.00%
carbon, and nutrient trading credits are valued at US $10–30/kg, $4/kg and $30/mt
for the respective compounds, the ecosystem services for nutrient biomitigation
provided by the 23.8 million t of worldwide annual seaweed aquaculture can be
valued at between $892.5 and $2.6 billion—as much as 40% of its present commercial value. This significant value is, however, never noted in any budget sheet or
business plan, as seaweeds are typically valued only for their biomass and food
trading values. It is interesting to note that the above value for carbon is per tonne,
whereas those for nitrogen and phosphorus are per kilogramme, a factor of 1000.
Nobody seems to have picked up on that when looking at the sequestration of
elements other than carbon. Moreover, having organisms able to accumulate
phosphorus is becoming increasingly attractive, as this element will soon be in short
supply.
The recognition of the ecosystem services provided by extractive species and the
implementation of NTCs would give a fair price to extractive aquaculture (Chopin
et al. 2010, 2012). They could be used as financial and regulatory incentive tools to
encourage single-species aquaculturists to contemplate IMTA as a viable option to
their current practices. Unfortunately, the Western world’s animal-biased aquaculture sector and coastal managers and regulators often do not appreciate the
ecosystemic roles of seaweeds and fail to take advantage of the environmental,
economic and societal benefits provided by seaweeds and other extractive species,
which have their full justification to be included in multi-use offshore platforms.
Education and dissemination of the concept of ecosystem services will be key for
their recognition by the general public, proper valuation by economic markets
(Barbier 2013; Costanza et al. 2014), and appropriate use for the emergence of
innovative aquaculture practices.
2.8 Concluding Remarks and Outlook
There is increasing concern about the negative consequences of intensive fish
aquaculture and the need to remediate its consequences. The two strategies to meet
the requirements for more space allotted to aquaculture have been and will continue
to be the following: (1) offshore aquaculture, that to date seems very expensive and
technically demanding, but due to ample space available, will allow considerable
mass production and (2) the very promising but likewise complex IMTA approach.
A combined design of fish cages in the foundation of the turbines in addition to
the extractive components of IMTA systems was first discussed at the World
Aquaculture Conference in Korea in 2008 (McVey and Buck 2008). This led to a
new project in the German Bight (Offshore Site-Selection, Buck and Krause 2012),
2 Offshore and Multi-Use Aquaculture with Extractive Species…
57
In coastal environments, mechanisms for the recovering of nitrogen and phosphorus
should also be highlighted and accounted for in the form of nutrient trading credits
(NTCs), a much more positive approach than taxing. If the composition of seaweeds can be averaged at around 0.35% nitrogen, 0.04% phosphorus and 3.00%
carbon, and nutrient trading credits are valued at US $10–30/kg, $4/kg and $30/mt
for the respective compounds, the ecosystem services for nutrient biomitigation
provided by the 23.8 million t of worldwide annual seaweed aquaculture can be
valued at between $892.5 and $2.6 billion—as much as 40% of its present commercial value. This significant value is, however, never noted in any budget sheet or
business plan, as seaweeds are typically valued only for their biomass and food
trading values. It is interesting to note that the above value for carbon is per tonne,
whereas those for nitrogen and phosphorus are per kilogramme, a factor of 1000.
Nobody seems to have picked up on that when looking at the sequestration of
elements other than carbon. Moreover, having organisms able to accumulate
phosphorus is becoming increasingly attractive, as this element will soon be in short
supply.
The recognition of the ecosystem services provided by extractive species and the
implementation of NTCs would give a fair price to extractive aquaculture (Chopin
et al. 2010, 2012). They could be used as financial and regulatory incentive tools to
encourage single-species aquaculturists to contemplate IMTA as a viable option to
their current practices. Unfortunately, the Western world’s animal-biased aquaculture sector and coastal managers and regulators often do not appreciate the
ecosystemic roles of seaweeds and fail to take advantage of the environmental,
economic and societal benefits provided by seaweeds and other extractive species,
which have their full justification to be included in multi-use offshore platforms.
Education and dissemination of the concept of ecosystem services will be key for
their recognition by the general public, proper valuation by economic markets
(Barbier 2013; Costanza et al. 2014), and appropriate use for the emergence of
innovative aquaculture practices.
2.8 Concluding Remarks and Outlook
There is increasing concern about the negative consequences of intensive fish
aquaculture and the need to remediate its consequences. The two strategies to meet
the requirements for more space allotted to aquaculture have been and will continue
to be the following: (1) offshore aquaculture, that to date seems very expensive and
technically demanding, but due to ample space available, will allow considerable
mass production and (2) the very promising but likewise complex IMTA approach.
A combined design of fish cages in the foundation of the turbines in addition to
the extractive components of IMTA systems was first discussed at the World
Aquaculture Conference in Korea in 2008 (McVey and Buck 2008). This led to a
new project in the German Bight (Offshore Site-Selection, Buck and Krause 2012),
2 Offshore and Multi-Use Aquaculture with Extractive Species…
57