Team 1 Proposals

Emailed Proposal

(This is what was emailed out--I'm not on team 1 but I figured that I should put the text up while I am moving these pages)
Here is our current proposal. We are still gathering examples/evidence, and the
citations aren't in proper format yet, but the ideas are there and should answer
your questions
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As human population grows, the demand and need for fish will grow alongside it. As such, despite developments in fishing technology, the demand and need for
fish will almost certainly exceed sustainable levels. Aquaculture is intended
to fill the gap between fish needs and sustainable fishing, and to be scalable
to meet future demands.
Aquaculture is already economically viable, with 40% of all food fish and 22%
of all trade in fish already raised in aquaculture facilities, mostly from
developing countries(1). However, modern aquaculture is far from sustainable. Some of the most pressing environmental issues are genetically modified fish
escaping into the wild, antibiotics used on fish forming resistant strains of
disease, the aquatic ecosystem around aquaculture facilities collapsing, and
the need to feed fish in aquaculture facilities(2). Our goal was to develop
guidelines for an individual country to follow when creating a facility, that
would remove as many environmental dangers as possible, while remaining
scalable to meet growing fish demand in the future in an economically viable
way.
Since our goal for aquaculture was to replace fish that could no longer be
removed from the ocean, we focused primarily on fish farming, rather than all
forms of aquatic organism farming. For the purposes of this plan, we looked at
two general types of fish farming. The first type is cage farming, which uses
cages in large bodies of water, relinquishing control over water quality for a
cheaper, simpler system. The second type, intensive, used closed or nearly
closed-loop water filtering systems, so that the fish do not interact with any
natural environments. We?ll start by looking at the risks and solutions
specific to extensive farming.
Cage farming has the virtue of being comparatively simple to set up and
maintain, as there is no need for advanced water quality control systems. However, the reliance on nature for water management causes many greater
environmental problems, notably the risk of algae blooms caused by the
concentrated waste and nutrients can devastate local ecosystems(2). The best
solutions we have found are either to use shellfish, sponges of other filter
feeders for local water quality management(3), or to make the cages mobile so
waste does not concentrate in any one location(4). The first option would work
well for countries where the right species are already native to the area, while
the second option would allow landlocked nations or nations with little
coastline a shot at aquaculture. There remains the question of the economic
feasibility of the system described in (4), especially in regards to developing
nations. While we are not currently able to provide an answer, we believe that
should sufficient commercial and governmental pressure develop, means of
reducing the cost of mobile-cage aquaculture would arise. These two options
should provide most nations a means of performing extensive aquaculture while
preserving the environment.
To attempt to reduce the risks from genetically modified fish, we recommend that
genetically modified fish not be used in extensive systems, as the risk of
escape is too great. Instead, we recommend that low-trophic level fish that
naturally school are farmed, especially herbivores and omnivores (such as
tilapia). Many of these fish also tend to be more resistant to disease than
other fish given similar disease prevention techniques(5), reducing or
eliminating the need for antibiotics and the corresponding risk of resistant
strains, and since they are herbivores, they can be fed plants from land or
sea, thus preserving other fisheries. While these fish are not necessarily
popular in the open market, they can certainly provide necessary protein for
many people, and can be used as feed for higher trophic level fish.
The second form of aquaculture we want to integrate is intensive, closed-loop
systems. In these systems, almost all the water is recycled, with at most
5-10% of water being replaced each day. This also means that escape of
genetically modified stock is nigh impossible, and that, with careful
monitoring, antibiotic-resistant diseases can be contained, and not spread into
the wild. Furthermore, as the water is in a closed loop, the waste and
nutrients from the fish do not impact the surrounding environments. The
ability to use antibiotics and genetically modify fish makes intensive
aquaculture more conducive to high-trophic level fish. The downsides are the
complexity of the recycling systems, and the need to feed higher-trophic level
fish other fish(2). However, intensive aquaculture provides an opportunity to
produce the high-level fish that are generally favored by consumers (salmon,
tuna, ect.).
To solve these problems, we propose that developing countries use cage farming
to raise a large number of low trophic fish, using plants as feed and our
previous suggestions to prevent negatively impacting the environment. These
fish would be used both as a source of protein for locals, as well as food for
higher trophic level fish farmed intensively in more wealthy nations. The
purchase of fish from developing nations would allow those nations to keep the
fish farms operating, thus (hopefully) providing food, for free, to their
citizens. Corporations in developed nations, then, would use the fish from
developing nations to raise higher tropic-level fish, selling them for a profit
to consumers in wealthier nations. In this manner, developing nations would
have food for their citizens as well as a new revenue stream, while developed
nations could continue to consume higher trophic level, with very little
negative environmental impact. Enforcing this plan would hinge on encouraging
companies in developed countries to move to intensive high trophic level
farming, thus producing a marked for extensive farming in developing nations
and encouraging them to participate. In the United States, NOAA, due to the
Merchant Marine Act, is already authorized to provide loans to help build
aquaculture facilities(6). By controlling the types of facilities they grant
loans to, they could encourage the creation of intensive, high trophic level
farms. However, this suggestion is tentative, as the manner of best
enforcement is highly dependent on other aspects of the solution, particularly
in regard to international treaties and bodies.
In some cases, it may be possible to produce a better system for a single
nation. In the case of India, some cities have integrated their waste water
treatment and aquaculture systems, so that human waste is used as feed for the
fish, thus solving two problems simultaneously(1). However, such specialized
multi-trophic solutions are dependent on many factors, and are thus hard to
create general guidelines for. While we encourage any nations setting up
aquaculture facilities to consider the possibility of multi trophic systems, we
feel designing and evaluating them is beyond the scope of this group and must be
handled on a case-by-case basis.
As a final note, NOAA recently released a 10-year plan for aquaculture in the
United States(6). We agree with their goals, particularly in terms of
educating the public and in using aquaculture to rebuild stocks of wild fish. As their plan seemed to be focused more on production and research goals, we
feel it can still work under our plan, and as such encourage its adoption.
1-World Bank report
2- http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-92632/Aquaculture-Fulfilling-Its-Promise
3-http://www.ugc.edu.hk/rgc/rgcnews10/Pages/2b%20Biofilter-E.html
4-http://seagrant.mit.edu/cfer/oceandrifter/Israel_paper.pdf
5-http://www.americulture.com/Disease.htm
6-http://aquaculture.noaa.gov/pdf/finalnoaa10yrrweb.pdf
***

TEAM 1 POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS

Our research has shown that aquaculture is a necessary part of our final solution.  According to a study done in 2003, nearly 31% of all fish sold commercially, comes from Aquaculture.  There are three different types that can be used in various locations all over the world.

Type 1:  Intensive-Man Made Facilities

•   Man Made fish farms, which can be productive in virtually any type of climate
•   Fish are farm from birth until when they are harvested and sold
•   Require much monitoring to maintain health of fish

Type 2:  Extensive-Pond/Lake

•   Farming occurs within a natural or man-made ponds and lakes
•   Fish can be farmed from birth to mature age, then released into wild or farmed until they need to be harvested
•   Facility must be near a source of fresh/running water to prevent disease and interference with local ecosystem

Type 3: Extensive-Open Cage

• Occurs in large cages in the ocean
• Can either be mobile or stationary
• Much care needs to be taken to prevent nutrients from feed from destroying ocean floor
  

All three of these methods can be effectively used in helping the oceans fisheries.  Some ways in which they can help are:

• Helping to rebuild crashed populations (using open cage aquaculture)
• Providing more food for carnivorous fish (farming prey fish so that others have enough food to eat)
• With the new regulations that are proposed, aquaculture can be used to make up for any lost revenue (especially with Tilalpia, Alaskan Salmon, Catfish, Shrimp and Mollusks)
• For overfished populations, aquaculture can help to rebuild the population by either 1) allowing young fish to be released into the wild; or 2) using aquaculture as the only source of the certain fish and prohibiting fishing of the wild fish, so that the population may regrow to a sustainable level.

A few things to consider:

• Aquaculture is already economically viable.
• So far as we can tell, it is the only truly scalable solution as demand grows in the future.
• If predatory fish are farmed, a sufficient number of prey fish will also have to be farmed
• Aquaculture can also be integrated into water treatment (aka multitrophic aquaculture) and thus reduce costs overall

In the end, the solution for aquaculture largely depends on the type of solutions put forth by everyone else.  Once we have decided how much the above solutions will affect the fish trade, we can determine on a larger scale how much aquaculture we will need in our final solution.  For further information, please see our the Team 1 Wiki or contact any of the members of our team.