Stamford professor of ecology and evolutionary biology Charles Yarish is working to use seaweeds to clean up pollution and waste from farmed fish and even humans. Called extractive aquaculture or bioextraction, the process will employ the physiological properties of seaweeds and other organisms to remove excess nutrients from polluted areas.
“Nutrient-enriched systems can contribute to harmful algal blooms, which deplete oxygen in the water,” elaborated Yarish. “Shellfish and seaweeds can provide good ecosystem services by extracting organic and inorganic nutrients from seawater.”
Last year, Yarish and his team received almost US$ 200,000 from the Connecticut Sea Grant College Programme and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Small Business Innovation Fund to grow seaweeds for human consumption and to create technologies that will sustain Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) in New England, reports the University of Connecticut.
Fish waste and nutrients derived from sewage treatment facilities and from land runoff all provide inorganic nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous, which various types of seaweed need to survive. Last February, Yarish and Chris Neefus of the University of New Hampshire established a seaweed culture in his laboratory to be used as a “seed bank” to grow the seaweeds on fish farms.
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This blog is written by Martin Little The Aquaculturists, published and supported by the International Aquafeed Magazine from Perendale Publishers.
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