The association for earthen pond farmers of marine species gives its members a voice

Strength and negotiating power in numbers

The cultivation of seabass and seabream in earthen ponds started in the 80s in the Milas district of Mugla province, when small farmers in the area discovered that the water was too saline to grow crops. The solution was to use the land and the water beneath it to grow marine fi sh instead. Today this fi sh is reputed to be the closest to its wild-caught cousins in taste and appearance and is therefore sold at a premium.

The earthen ponds used to cultivate marine fi sh on land are created with excavators and are generally 20-100 m in length, 4-20 m in width and 1-3 m in depth. Th ey are typically lined with geomembranes, an impermeable plastic sheet that prevents water from the pond from contaminating the surrounding environment.

Family-run businesses dominate the sector

of which is seabass. It is a familyrun business involving Mr Toguc, his wife and two sons. His ponds are 60 x 15 x 2.5 m and are fi lled with water that is pumped from the ground. Th e area is so close to the coast that the ground water has about the same parameters as the Aegean Sea. Th e diff erence is the temperature, which is a constant 19 degrees C throughout the year, while in the Aegean the water temperature varies with the season.

According to Cüneyt Suzer and his co-authors in a paper in Marine Aquaculture in Turkey published by the Turkish Marine Research Foundation, production from earthen ponds amounted to 4 (~11,000 t) of the total seabass and seabream production in Turkey in 2018. Individual farms with earthen ponds produce in the range of 1-50 tonnes of fi sh per year, according to a 2015 overview of the seabass and seabream sector by Ferit Rad and Isa Sen from Mersin University. Earthen pond farmers in Mugla are organised into the Inland Aquaculture Association of Milas. Th e president of the association, Muhammet Toguc, is himself a farmer with half a dozen earthen ponds where he produces some 30 tonnes of seabass and seabream a year, the majority (60)

A variety of species can be produced in earthen ponds

Th e larvae used to populate the ponds are purchased from hatcheries when they are between 1.5 and 2 g. Th ey are introduced into the ponds and fed until they reach a size of at least 300 g and sometimes over 1 kg. Mr Toguc is not only producing seabass and seabream but also small volumes of meagre, pink dentex, blue spotted seabream, and shi drum. Two of the members of the association are using their ponds to produce whiteleg shrimp, which are grown to about 35 g. Th ere are about 45 active members in the association, all of them family-owned businesses, and while most of them produce some 30 tonnes of seabass and seabream

Muhammet Toguc, president of the Inland Aquaculture Association of Milas (left) and Emre Don from the Mugˇla Provincial Directorate of the Turkish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry who has hooked a fi ne seabass from one of Mr Toguc’s ponds.

annually, some have an output of up to 80 tonnes. Characteristic of these companies is that all the work, feeding, harvesting, packaging, etc., is done by the family members, there are seldom any employees. A further 30 members have suspended their operations mainly because their production costs have made their operations unsustainable. Th e biggest expense is feed, the price of which is denominated in dollars. Since the value of the Turkish lira has shrunk over the last years these companies have had to stop their production. Mr Toguc hopes however that conditions will improve in the future allowing them to reactivate their participation in the association.

Adding value and creating a brand are among the plans for the future

Th e fi sh is sold whole on ice to the domestic market, chiefl y restaurants in Bodrum and Izmir, where its sensory and visual qualities are highly appreciated. It is also sold at the auction in Izmir and buyers there then further distribute the fi sh across Turkey. Another channel is the traders who buy the fi sh directly from the farms and then sell it on to fi shmongers, and the