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Escapes in European Aquaculture -Development of an Escape-proof Net especially for Cod, Bass and Bream fish farming
Intensive farming of species like Seabass, Seabream and Cod, uses to a large extent technology that traditionally was developed and specialized for salmon farming purposes. This has been shown not to be optimal, among other things with respect to net design, materials used, and resistance against gnaws and chip-ups. The reason for these problems is differences in species behaviour.
Seabass, seabream and cod are aggressive towards the net itself, more than other species, and biting, sucking and snatching on loose rope ends, knots etc., is often seen. As a result, holes in the net may occur, leading to escapees and loss of fish stock. Due to this, there is considerable concern with respect to aquaculture representing a threat to ecology and biodiversity representing risk of disease transfer from aquaculture to wild fish populations and potential “genetic” pollution of wild fish. In addition, escapees represent a considerable decrease in competitiveness for the large community of European aquaculture SMEs.
Thus, our idea is to develop a sea cage net system especially suitable for farming of typical net aggressive fish species like European seabass, Gilthead seabream and Atlantic cod, currently important in the European fish farming industry and in the near future.
To achieve this, we must develop a cost-effective net filament with exact physical characteristics and incorporated impregnation and repulsive agents for the prevention of fouling, biting & snatching behaviour. An adaptation of existing net manufacturing technique for optimal exploitation of material characteristics will be developed and used to produce a net with improved design regarding configuration, strength & durability that will also fulfil the requirements to embrace low operational costs.
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EscapeProofNet is funded under EC's Sixth Framework Programme |
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