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REVIEW AND SYNTHESIS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF AQUACULTURE

ANNEX RESEARCH UNDERWAY ON ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF AQUACULTURE

Scottish Association for Marine Science
May 2002

Introduction

To address the issue of current and future research on aquaculture impacts worldwide, a questionnaire was devised (see below) and sent by email to workers identified from a variety of sources. The MARAQUA web site ( http://www.biol.napier.ac.uk/maraqua) maintained by Napier University was an initial source of contact addresses for European researchers. To widen the target community, members of the ICES Working Group on Mariculture and The Environment were sought for contact addresses.

To identify workers in the field in the United States, the Aquaculture Information Center - DOC/NOAA website ( http://www.lib.noaa.gov/docaqua/basicaqua.html) provided addresses and links to the various state Sea Grant programmes. The Aquaculture Association of Canada ( http://www.aquacultureassociation.ca) provided links to researchers in Canada. Finally, recent worldwide symposia on aquaculture impacts were studied for relevant addresses.

A total of 481 emails were sent containing the questionnaire. There were 52 returned from email servers stating the user was unknown, indicating that the addressee had changed address, or had provided an incorrect email address. Where possible these erroneous addresses were corrected. 30 researchers replied affirmatively, and returned completed questionnaires, 15 replied that they were not doing any work in the area, 9 said they were out of the office and would deal with the reply on their return, and 3 were not sure.

The replies were entered into a database, and extracted into areas of research for compilation into the annex appended. The areas of research were divided into: Discharge of Waste Nutrients; Effects of Medicines/Chemicals; Disease Impacts (including parasitic sea lice); Escapes From Fish Farms and Potential Effects on Wild Stocks; Sustainability of Feed Supplies; Carrying Capacity; Impacts on Seabird/ Sea Mammal Populations; Impacts of Trace Metals; Assessment of Impacts (Modelling/Monitoring); and Others. The annex contains only the title of the project, acronym, commencement date, location of host institute, and a brief description of the project.

The text of the questionnaire:

Environmental Impacts of Aquaculture - Questionnaire

In response to a Scottish Parliament Transport and Environment Committee Review examining the interactions between Aquaculture and the Environment it was announced that a full review should be undertaken by the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) on the recent and on-going research concerning the Environmental Impacts of Aquaculture. If you are currently involved in or have secured funding for future work, I would be very grateful if you would take a few minutes to complete the questionnaire below and return the form to:-

Dr Kenneth Black, SAMS, Dunstaffnage Marine Laboratory, Oban, Argyll, Scotland, U.K.
PA37 1QA
or e-mail: kdb@dml.ac.uk

Please return this form by Friday 5 April 2002

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