Course

Many key IMTA papers and articles available from Thierry Chopin

• The move towards IMTA at a pilot scale in Europe has been relatively seamless with IMTA being treated as an experimental ‘add-on’ to existing mono-culture sites.
• Current aquaculture legislation focuses on the single species approach and it remains to be seen if it can be simply ‘amended’ to incorporate bi-culture and poly-culture at a commercial scale.
• There may be a need for a change to some aspects of legal regimes in order to accommodate IMTA, particularly in relation to the transfer of disease, fish health and food safety.

K.A. Alexander, T.P. Potts, S. Freeman, D. Israel, J. Johansen, D. Kletou, M. Meland, D. Pecorino, C. Rebours, M. Shorten, D.L. Angel. 2015. The implications of aquaculture policy and regulation for the development of integrated multi-trophic aquaculture in Europe. Aquaculture,Vol 443, pp 16-23.

"Ocean-based proteins are substantially less carbon intensive than land-based proteins (especially beef and lamb). Therefore, actions that shift diets to lower carbon protein, including ocean-based proteins, reduce emissions."

Hoegh-Guldberg. O., et al. 2019. ‘‘The Ocean as a Solution to Climate Change: Five Opportunities for Action.’’ Report. Washington, DC: World Resources Institute. Available online at
http://www.oceanpanel.org/climate

• Levels of awareness of IMTA were variable across stakeholder groups and across countries.
• Positive aspects of IMTA included environmental benefits such as waste utilisation and economic benefits.
• Negative impacts of IMTA identified as spatial and location issues, disease outbreak potential, food safety and containment.
• IMTA may contribute to improving the image of the aquaculture industry.

K.A. Alexander, D. Angel, S. Freeman, D. Israel, J. Johansen, D. Kletou, M. Meland, D. Pecorino, C. Rebours, M. Rousou, M. Shorten, T. Potts, 2016. Improving sustainability of aquaculture in Europe: Stakeholder dialogues on Integrated Multi-trophic Aquaculture (IMTA). Environmental Science & Policy. Volume 55, Part 1. Pages 96-106.

IMTA holds scope for multi-use of offshore areas and can bring environmental benefits from making use of waste products and transforming these into valuable co-products.

Buck Bela H., Troell Max F., Krause Gesche, Angel Dror L., Grote Britta, Chopin Thierry. 2018. State of the Art and Challenges for Offshore Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA). Frontiers in Marine Science. Vol.5. pp165. 

http://www.oceanpanel.org/climate

Regional Integrated Multitrophic Aquaculture (RIMTA) is a shift of paradigm in the way IMTA is used to sequester the dissolved exported waste and derived primary production generated by high trophic level cultures. RIMTA advocates for independent allocation of cultures of low and high trophic level species within the same water body.

This review presents several aspects of seaweed production, such as volumes of production, uses, production trends, economic analysis, the potential, environmental risks, and future needs.