Mote aquaculture park a promising partnership of plants and pompano in the US

Pompano waste is a smelly by-product at Mote Marine Laboratory's fish farm's on Fruitville Road, but it is plant food to Gil Sharell Jr. In a partnership between Mote Marine's Aquaculture Research Park and Aquatic Plants of Florida, an unlikely ecosystem has emerged east of Interstate 75, where the excrement of 4,000 Florida pompano feeds the roots of red mangrove, black needlerush and smooth cordgrass.

"It's a great partnership because I'm producing the fish and they're making use of the waste," said Kevan Main, director of Mote's center for aquaculture research and development. For Mote, the plants serve as an additional filter in a fish farm that relies on recirculating saltwater. The plants will be sold as needed for coastal wetland restoration projects starting in the spring and throughout the year, said Sharell, vice president of Aquatic Plants, which has a 30-acre farm in Myakka City.

If it works, the technology could mark a breakthrough in farming seafood without the usual pollution. Most seafood farming operations produce significant waste, a critical problem for farms in coastal waterways or areas of the ocean where the nutrient influx can fuel harmful algae blooms. "Fish farms, if they are going to reduce environmental impacts, they are going to have to move away from the coast," Main said. "This is really a first step in trying to see: Can we completely recycle the water and not kill the fish?"

The US$700,000 experiment was partly funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and also involves a similar fish farm and aquatic plant partnership in central Mississippi. Read more...

This blog is written by Martin Little The Aquaculturists, published and supported by the International Aquafeed Magazine from Perendale Publishers.