Aquaculture Impact on the Marine Environment

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Nowadays, we often hear of the aquatic organisms cultivated in a controlled marine environment to help people sustain resources or use these for recreation. But, have you ever thought of how this is called? This is known as aquaculture, and it has several implications in the environment, explicitly causing marine pollution.[Tičina, V., Katavić, I., & Grubišić, L. (2020). Marine Aquaculture Impacts on Marine Biota in Oligotrophic Environments of the Mediterranean Sea–A Review. Frontiers in Marine Science, 7, 217. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2020.00217]
Typically, the outcomes are secondary to the disturbances in biodiversity to match the productivity requirement, affecting all the aquatic organisms, such as the fish, their sources of food, and their natural habitat. One good example of aquacultural activity is fish farming, which provides the world’s most significant number of products in the seafood market, with an estimated mass of more than 54 million tons of fish, around eight million tons of crustaceans, and more than 17 million tons of mollusks.1
The high demand for these foods, especially in regions that offer expensive dishes, equates to its contribution to the local and international economy, resulting in a 5.8% growth from 2001 to 2006.2 The more aquatic products sold in the market, the more beneficial it is in terms of money-making.
Aside from this, it has a lot more positive effects than expected. Aquaculture promises long-term sustainability that matches the rapidly growing population worldwide and prevents overfishing, resulting in the extinction of some species. This is especially true in the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. Overfishing of the latter depletes the codfish population, resulting in disturbances in the food chain. Another positive outcome is its ability to rebuild species populations, such as shellfish and marine water plants, necessary for maintaining biodiversity. Also, it produces materials that can be used to enhance biotechnology, such as the construction of sewage and wastewater treatment areas. In India, farmers redirect the sewage and wastewater to the duckweed ponds, followed by the ponds of carp and prawns. These aquatic animals benefit from the wastewater, thereby cleaning it without the need for other resources. In turn, the cleaned water can be supplied over a large area of agricultural lands.[Id.]
Now, you might ask, why do we need to control aquaculture if it provides tremendous benefits? This is because aquaculture pollutes the water systems. We should first visualize how it actually looks like. For instance, fish farming is done by culturing the fish in growth-out floating cages sheltered within the shorelines, where there is water stagnation or reduced flow. Since many aquatic animals are cultured in a small area relative to the number of organisms combined with the reduced flow of water, there will be an accumulation of waste products, such as fecal material and excess nutrients. The large concentration of these is hazardous for other aquatic animals, as it can cultivate parasites that might infect the cultured area and the migrating schools of fish. Th...