TURKEY
Over three years Defne Tur switched completely from the domestic market to the EU
Electronic systems bring efficiency and flexibility Established a quarter of a century ago, Defne Tur produces seabass and seabream for sale primarily on the European market. The production volume for both species taken together amounts to some 8,000 tonnes a year.
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n the Milas area on the west coast of Turkey about 200 km south of Izmir, Defne Tur is a familyowned business based on the production and export of seabass and seabream. Two thirds of the production of 8,000 tonnes is seabream and the remainder is seabass.
Two marine farming sites, and one rainbow trout farm While Defne Tur does not have its own hatchery for the production of juvenile fish it owns a share of another company, Ilknak Aquaculture, and sources the young fish from them. The on growing cages are located off the coast at Gulluk in the Milas area and can be reached with a 60 to 90 minutes trip by boat. The cages are not all the same size. There are 12 50 m radius cages, 36 30 m radius cages, and 27 24 m cages. The 24 m cages are used for pre-growth phase of the juveniles. Once they reach 30-40 g they are transferred to the bigger cages. In addition to the Gulluk site is another location for cages off the southern coast of Turkey in Hatay province. This facility has a capacity of some 3,000 tonnes of fish a year. Defne Tur also has a trout farming facility in the hills of Dalama, some 150 km southeast of Izmir. So far, the volumes of trout produced have been modest. In 2020 production amounted to 36
some 100 tonnes which the company sold on the domestic market. In 2021 production is expected to expand to 400-500 tonnes. The ideal temperature for seabass and seabream is around 24 degrees C and with the impact of climate change this may be exceeded. So far, Mr Uncel, feels that the company’s operations have not been affected by warming water or other manifestations of climate change, but this may change in the future. Already, if the water temperature in the sea increases, the feeding frequency is reduced, but in general seabass and seabream can survive in temperatures of up to 30 degrees, but beyond that it starts to affect them. Trout requires lower water temperatures, but at the facility in Dalarma, where the trout are produced in small cages in a dam lake, the water does not exceed the fish’s preferred temperature zone in winter and spring. In summer when there could be a risk, there is no production.
Technology to simplify operations and reduce emissions Modern technology is very much a part of the seabass and seabream production. Feed is distributed to all the cages except the pre-growing cages from two barges. Cameras monitor the feeding and the response it generates among the fish and stream the film to an app,
Seabass is unloaded into a drum to be carried to the grading machine.
so that it can be viewed on a mobile phone. The app can even control the feeding process, so that an operator in Milas can start, stop, or adjust the feeding from the barges 25 km away. Juvenile fish in the pre-growing cages are fed manually using small boats to keep a close eye on them. The distance from the shore also means the fish is growing in water that is deeper and better oxygenated. At the start this posed a challenge in that the cages and installations needed to be made more robust to withstand rougher waters, but now Mr Uncel thinks that the effort has been worth it as the fish produced are of higher quality and there are no conflicts with other users of the near shore sea areas. Oxygen levels in the water are carefully monitored and should they fall the first response is to reduce feeding. Other parameters that are tracked include temperature, currents, and for algae, water
samples are analysed at intervals. Technology is also being deployed to reduce Defne Tur’s carbon footprint. For example, all garbage is sent to be recycled, efforts are being made to reduce the use of plastic, and solar panels provide the electricity to run the cameras that monitor the cages. Other projects include one that will install solar panels to supplement the electricity supply at the packaging facility, while another is to electrify the vehicles that service the different sites, e.g., busses that transport the workers and forklifts used in the factory. Harvesting the fish depends on the orders received. This way the fish can be harvested the day the order comes in ensuring that the client gets the freshest possible fish and so contributing to good relationship with the customer, says Mr Uncel, the managing director of
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