214 Fish as feed inputs for aquaculture – Practices, sustainability and implications
haddock are farmed in cages in the colder waters of Norway, Iceland and the United
Kingdom. Halibut juveniles are reared in land-based tanks until they are 30–40 g before
they are stocked into sea cages. Unlike salmon, they prefer sheltered areas with little
current movement.
In Europe, eel farms can be found in countries such as Sweden, the United Kingdom,
the Netherlands, France, Spain, Denmark, Italy and Greece. Due to the complexity of
their life cycle, no one has yet managed to successfully breed European eels (Anguilla
anguilla). Instead, eel farms rely on using young eels returning from the Sargasso
Sea to grow. Eel culture or farming involves catching juvenile (glass) eels when they
enter freshwater and growing them to a marketable size. While 95 percent of eels are
grown in freshwater, Italy, the United Kingdom, France and Germany culture eels in
brackishwater (4.5 percent of production) and full seawater (0.5 percent). The three
main techniques for culturing eels include the use of ponds, accelerated temperature
facilities and recirculation systems.
The fattening of bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus) has expanded rapidly in the
Mediterranean Sea over the last five years. The Mediterranean Sea farmed tuna production
in 2004 was approximately 23 000 tonnes (FAO, 2005b), of which around 95 percent
was exported to Japan, although the International Commission on Conservation
of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT) reports that there is currently cage capacity of around
41 000 tonnes (for a six-month growing period). This is mostly in Spain (29 percent),
Turkey (23 percent), Croatia
(16 percent), Malta (15 percent)
and Italy (11 percent), with
lower levels of production in
Greece and Portugal.
In freshwaters, two species
groups predominate, trout and
cyprinids (Figures 3 and 4, Table
2). Trout farming is carried out
commercially in 23 European
states, with annual production
exceeding 60 000 tonnes in
Norway and 35 000 tonnes
in Denmark, Italy, France
and Spain, while Finland,
Germany, Poland and the
United Kingdom each produce
TABLE 1
Marine finfish production in Europe, 1996–2005 (tonnes)
Species 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Seabass 22 334 28 433 37 939 46 157 57 811 56 162 61 093 62 060 68 679 80 161
Seabream 31 132 36 843 48 450 60 831 75 232 79 003 79 767 88 340 88 922 97 060
Salmon 403 284 452 702 502 361 591 068 610 947 640 777 671 655 756 744 717 831 712 271
Sea-grown
trout 87 941 78 025 94 250 98 219 99 282 119 431 144 270 122 987 108 198 101 680
Halibut – 138 20 503 135 389 350 845 855 905
Turbot – 3 118 3 035 3 466 3 873 4 640 5 320 5 107 6 086 6 865
Cod –– –– 16 41 50 2 550 2 600 n/a
Eels 7 594 8 293 10 738 11 109 11 033 10 284 9 033 8 715 8 340 7 800
Total 552 285 607 552 696 793 811 353 858 329 910 727 971 538 1 0 47 348 1 001 511 1 006 742
n/a: Data not available
Source: http://www.feap.info/feap/aquaculturedata/default_en.asp
FIGURE 3
Freshwater finfish production in Europe, 1996–2005
0
50 000
100 000
150 000
200 000
250 000
300 000
350 000
400 000
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Production (tonnes)
Year
Carps Catfish Tro u t