For a duration of four months, the secondees Claudio Marcello Catone and Eugenio Geremia researched circularity within aquaculture value chains and associated issues of sustainability in AquaBioTech facilities under the supervision of Dr Steven George Prescott.
The common issue concerning intensive, open cages aquaculture, is the localised enrichment nutrient of water bodies and seafloors. Also, capture fisheries and agricultural crop production for the supply of feed ingredients are linked to environmental issues. Starting from this assumption, the focus of the work was 1) to evaluate the sustainability of the microalga Nannochloropsis gaditana (cultivated on industrial medium) as an aquafeed supplement and partial replacement for agricultural crops and fisheries products, and 2) assess the sustainability of salmon-macroalgae-mussel IMTA as solution for the remediation of nutrient emissions. Both these solutions have been evaluated using life cycle assessment (LCA}.
