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APROMAR’s research division seeks innovative solutions to challenges facing industry
Ensuring the competitiveness of Spanish aquaculture The Spanish aquaculture sector is the biggest in the EU in terms of production and employment. The sector comprises some 5,000 companies producing shellfish in the sea, and fish in marine and freshwater. This industry is represented by the association, APROMAR, which works to increase the competitiveness of its members and promote the development of a sustainable aquaculture industry in Spain. A research division in APROMAR implements projects that seek innovative solutions to challenges faced by the industry. Javier Ojeda González-Posada, the managing director of APROMAR speaks here about the aquaculture sector in Spain and the role of the association. The impacts of climate change (warmer water, invasive species, extreme weather events, algal blooms etc.) affect the marine aquaculture sector. What steps is the Spanish industry taking to adapt to these new conditions. And what measures are being implemented to mitigate the sector’s own contribution to emissions? When approaching climate change, APROMAR acts on both sides. On mitigation we have just finalised measurement studies of the carbon footprint for three of the main species that we produce: European seabass, rainbow trout and turbot. We will now work on ways to reduce them even if they are already small when compared to other food products, both animal and vegetal. Benchmarking is essential in this exercise. And on the adaptation side to climate change, we are discussing with the Spanish public authorities how to improve spatial planning in the sea to be able to make use of sites more suitable to extreme weather conditions licenses (mainly through larger sites), to face stronger waves and currents. At the same time, we have developed certifiable standards 56
for more resistant sea pens and moorings, as almost all Spanish sea farms are offshore. And for freshwater fish farming in rivers, we work to prioritise the position of fish farming as a user of water during droughts. While the influence of climate change on fish farming is generally adverse, there is also some positive fallout—a longer growing season, for example, in temperate countries. Can the marine farming sector in Spain report on encouraging developments attributable to warming weather? Climate change mainly brings negative consequences. Fish farming is already a very complex business and the uncertainties brought by changes in nature drive that complexity even further. This has no positive side; not even the increase in water temperature. However, it is true that fish farming faces this new global challenge from a much better starting point than landbased livestock production. This is due to the biological characteristics of aquatic species. These are much more efficient and require fewer natural resources
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Javier Ojeda González-Posada, Managing Director, APROMAR, the association of the Spanish aquaculture industry
than terrestrial species. Another advantage that Spanish fish farming enjoys is that the sector is comprised of modern and innovative companies capable of adapting rapidly. Enterprises are also collaborating as a sector, through associations like APROMAR. Facing climate change is
better done at industry level than by individual companies. Among a small but vocal group of consumers in some countries farmed fish has a poor reputation as they associate it with environmental damage and the use of chemicals, and consider
