Site selection and carrying capacity in Mediterranean ... - FAO Sipam

91 GFCM:XXXV/2011/Dma.9
8. Procedures for site selection, regulatory schemes and EIA procedures in
the Mediterranean
by Rosa Chapela & Marta Ballesteros
8.1 Introduction
8.1.1 Mediterranean aquaculture
Diversity and heterogeneity are intrinsic to aquaculture in the Mediterranean, both with regard to the
activity itself as well as with respect to the legal and institutional frameworks that regulate it. In this
region, a wide-range of species are cultured, and different production methods and technologies
applied; there are small-scale farms and multinational companies with vertical integration in all the
production process; there are mature companies that show clear signals of stagnation and others that
have not yet reached their potential growth; and there are legal tools that enable aquaculture
development and legal constrains that threaten the future of the activity in the medium and long term.
Nevertheless, several trends within the Mediterranean are quite homogeneous. For example, the
evolution of production reflects the tendency of a global slow-down of aquaculture. As pointed out by
FAO: “the overall the rate of growth in aquaculture (measured in production volume) has started to
slow. For the world as a whole, while the average yearly growth rate has been 11.8% in the period
1985–94, it was 7.1% in the following decade (FAO, 2008). For the GFCM area, total marine and
brackish water aquaculture production reached an average yearly growth rate of 10.55% in the period
1985-1995, falling to 5.04% in the period 1996-2007 17 (Figure 1).
Additionally, growth has not been uniform, neither by country nor by group of species or by species.
Although Mediterranean mussels remain the main species in terms of volume (103.342 tonnes in
2007), the relative weight of this species has dropped from 83% in 1985 to the 27% in 2007, mainly
due to the increase in the production of marine finfish. Currently, European sea bass (51.928 T in
2007), gilthead sea bream (101.010 t in 2007) and sea bass (41.900 t in 2007), represent together half
of the Mediterranean and Black Sea production 18 . Based on these values, the same group of species
has a production of 65% of the total versus the 6% of Mediterranean mussel production.
17 Source: data analysed from FAO, FISHSTAT, 2007. Several documents and reports by the FAO have emphasised the
numerous information gaps that limit our comprehension of Mediterranean aquaculture, as limitation in data sources related
to technologies and production modes or the allocation of production volumes for countries as Spain or Egypt (see GFCM:
CAQ/VI/2008/2)
18 The Atlantic Bluefin tuna is the other finfish species with higher annual average growth rates for the period 1985-2007
(22,73%), although its relevance in terms of volume (less than 1% of total production in 2007) and value (2,7% of total value
in 2007) remains low. As pointed by Cardia and Lovatelli (2007) “Commercial activities on fattening captive Atlantic
bluefin tuna (Thunnus thynnus thynnus) in large floating cages have been reported since the mid 1980s (Spain), but a
significant expansion of this farming practice in the region started only in the mid 1990s. Atlantic bluefin tuna fattening
should be viewed as a capture-based aquaculture practice considering that the fish are caught by purse seiners and stocked in
cages usually for 10 months. Harvested fish are mainly for the Japanese market” .
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