In September 2010, 55 participants from all interest groups, from ENGO’s and Aquaculture professionals to local government officials and Federal regulators, attended  the first PACAQUA workshop on Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture ( IMTA). The workshop covered the past, present and future of Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA). The workshop was sponsored by NOAA Aquaculture and a range of aquaculture industry organizations.

After a day of talks by speakers from the world wide practice of IMTA, covering all aspects of the subject from Social License to Veterinary Medicine, on the second day the group split into interest groups: : Social, Economic and Ecological, and engaged in a SWOT Analysis ( Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) of IMTA to better bring into focus the outcomes of the meeting. A verbatim transcript of the meeting was used to generate the White Paper which reviews the meeting and presents the SWOT analysis as well as unique, extended quantitative analysis of the SWOT findings.

The White Paper from the Workshop at Peninsula College in Port Angeles, Washington is now available The results of the workshop and extended SWOT analysis review  the state of IMTA in the world and present its prospects for assisting in advancing sustainable aquaculture development in North America. The workshop presentations have been available on the PACAQUA site since September 2010.

It is important to note that IMTA is currently used to maintain sustainable, low environmental impact aquaculture in marine, brackish and freshwater environments around the world, in some areas dating back centuries. The recent PACAQUA sponsored session at Aquaculture America: IMTA in North America: Taking it to the next level, demonstrated both the  food production capabilities of IMTA in use today, as well as the current research in progress,  ensure that IMTA effects in them and the marine environment are well understood and that specific diets for IMTA species are being anticipated and developed by the alternative feeds industry. The  30 day public comment period  ended May 11, 2011 and received comments have3 been included. Any further comments relevant to the White Paper and IMTA should be addressed to: chairman@pacaqua.org or made on the web site.

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Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) involves the cultivation of multiple species that feed at different trophic levels in a single aquaculture system in order increase efficiency and reduce environmental impacts. This workshop is designed to provide participants an effective overview of IMTA and will involve breakout sessions for discussing how IMTA may be useful for expanding aquaculture in the US.

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IMTA Regional Development

Steve Cross

History of IMTA Development in Canada

IMTA Conceptual Framework:

Joao Ferreira

IMTA Systems Modeling

IMTA Components:

Mike Rust

Finfish

Steven Hart

Feed Inputs

Doug Ernst

Primary Producers

Peter Becker

Filter Feeders

Jack Ganzhorn

Deposit Feeders

IMTA Concerns:

Grace Karreman

Finfish Disease Concerns

Michael Pietrak

Shellfish Disease Concerns

Jack Word

Aquaculture Chemical/drug Use Concerns

John Forster

Species Selection

IMTA Case Studies:

Steve Cross

Salt Water

Doug Ernst

Brackish Water

IMTA Socioeconomics:

Gunnar Knapp

Economics

Sebastian Belle

Community Acceptance

Abstracts

Meeting Pamphlet

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(Port Angeles, WA) Although they were separated by an ocean, a continent, and several time zones the participants and their featured speaker were in synch on Tuesday as Portugal-based professor, Dr. Joao Ferreira, delivered research findings at the first-ever, U.S.-based Workshop on Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture, also known as IMTA. “Significant enhancements occur both to production and environmental quality through the use of IMTA,” Ferreira told the 60-plus participants. “These lessons need to be applied to the West.”

Sponsored by the Pacific Aquaculture Caucus and Peninsula College in Port Angeles, Washington, the workshop attracted a range of scientific experts and researchers along with aquaculturists from the Pacific Northwest, Maine, Texas, and elsewhere. In the United States and Canada, IMTA is an evolving approach to seafood production that emphasizes an ecosystem management approach where ‘fed’ species, such as finfish or shrimp, are farmed in close proximity to species that can ‘extract’ nutrients from the water column, such as shellfish and algae or seaweed.

Whether participants see IMTA as a relatively new and “promising” approach for growing more seafood or an effort to showcase a form of aquaculture already being extensively used in China, interest in the concept was high. “I think we caught people’s attention with this workshop,” said PACAQUA President and workshop convener, Dr. Peter Becker. “We provided an open forum where new information was presented and we were willing to discuss all sides.”

Workshop speakers addressed a range of topics from the theoretical to the practical, including systems modeling, production methods, biosecurity, chemical and drug use, feeds, disease risk, species selection, economics, and community acceptance. These were in addition to Ferreira’s highly-anticipated presentation, which highlighted the use of statistical modeling to better project and predict the environmental and economic benefits from an integrated aquaculture operation. “I think it was quite a revelation for some hearing that we can model and predict what will happen on a farm based on science,” said Becker.

The ongoing work of Canadian professor and aquaculture researcher Dr. Stephen Cross and his SEAfarm site was featured as a case study for IMTA on the West Coast. Cross, who is the Director of the Coastal Aquaculture Research and Training Network at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, offered an overview of the project launched nine years ago in Kyuquot Sound, on the West Coast of Vancouver Island, B.C. His findings provided a practical example of the environmental and socio-economic challenges and benefits associated with commercial scale IMTA. Cross, who uses the term “Sustainable Ecological Aquaculture” to describe his approach to integrated aquaculture, is also an innovator, who is adapting and perfecting new equipment and farm configurations to advance his commercial-scale R&D project.

Cross’ project, which has encountered little opposition from local communities or national environmental organizations, also provided the foil for a presentation on the challenge of gaining social acceptance for aquaculture in the U.S. In a session led by Sebastian Belle, the Executive Director of the Maine Aquaculture Association, the audience heard about the David versus Goliath scenarios that play out over and over in Maine as local fishermen and aquaculturists apply for commercial aquaculture permits are met with cadres of lawyers representing waterfront landowners opposed to the permit. “It’s really boiling down to a social conflict now,” said Belle. “In Maine, it’s become a conflict between people who need to work for a living and those who don’t. “

Belle also emphasized the challenge of changing demographics in waterfront communities as a hurdle for any form of aquaculture. “We have fewer and fewer people living in these coastal communities with traditional ties to the ocean, so there is less and less tolerance of anything that is extractive. These folks are interested in recreation and tourism, not oyster farms and working waterfronts.”

However, holding the workshop in Port Angeles provided a ready-made tie to a Pacific Northwest community with strong ties to the marine environment between the college’s fisheries and aquaculture program and American Gold’s aquaculture site. “We emphasize training and education for rural economic development in an environmentally sustainable way,” said Professor Jack Ganzhorn, the college’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Program Coordinator.

The workshop wrapped up Wednesday with a focus on ecological, economic, social acceptance discussions by all the participants. Workshop findings will be published in a white paper.

Workshop sponsors included the Pacific Aquaculture Caucus, Peninsula College, the NOAA Aquaculture Program, and the Illinois Soybean Association, Indiana Soybean Alliance, Taylor Shellfish, Umami Sea Vegetables, SEAvision Black Cod, and American Gold Seafood.

Meeting Abstracts are attached

Meeting Pamphlet is attached

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The Pacific Aquaculture Caucus Inc. (PACAQUA)  announces  the  Wiley Blackwell Publication of  The History of Aquaculture by Colin E. Nash Ph.D.  Copies available  in October 2010 through the  PACAQUA web site.

Table of Contents

1.   Fish and Shellfish as Food

2.  Seeds in Antiquity (2000 BC–500 AD)

3.  Subsistence Farming through the Middle Ages (500-1450)

4.  The Slow Dawn of Science (1450-1900)

5.  The Roots of Modern Aquaculture (1750-1880)

6.  Farming the Sea (1880-1920)

7.  Fifty Lost Years (1900-1950)

8.  Aquaculture in a World at War (1935-1945)

9.  Post-War Pioneering (1950-1970)

10.  Uncontrolled Expansion (1965-1975)

11.  The Rise of the Institutions (1970-1980)

12.  Building Global Capacity (1980-2000)

13.  Modern Times (twenty-first century)

This comprehensive book is fully illustrated with over 40 plates and 6 maps.

Author Colin E. Nash Ph.D.:

After earning his doctorate from the University of Leeds, Colin Nash served in a number of positions in the U.K., Hawaii, and the U.S.  Mr. Nash was Director of the Aquaculture Development and Coordination Program at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome during the 1980s, followed by four years as the technical director of Cofrepêche, an international firm in France specializing in coastal management issues. After his return to the United States in 1998, Mr. Nash joined the aquaculture group at the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center’s Manchester Research Station near Seattle. For 10 years he was the Editor-in-Chief of the first aquaculture journal, Aquaculture. He has published a number of papers on aquaculture, including, most recently, Guidelines for Ecological Risk Assessment of Marine Fish Aquaculture (NOAA Technical Memo, December 2005) and Achieving Policy Objectives to Increase the Value of the Seafood Industry in the United States: The Technical Feasibility and Associated Constraints (Food Policy, December 2004). In 2005, Mr. Nash was made an Honorary Member of the European Aquaculture Society.

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