Mussels have higher growth (about 50 percent faster for both algae and mussels) and more meat yield

The fish farming industry provides important environmental challenges. Over the Ocean Forest Project will Bellona solve them, while making the cultivation of seaweed to a large and environmentally sound industry. This is a shorter version of Bellona new factsheet on integrated aquaculture and the Ocean Forest Project. The full version can be read here.
Utilization of the Norwegian macroalgae resources today are based on the harvesting of natural populations coralline algae in kelp forests on the coast of Rogaland Sor-Trondelag. But increased output from these resources is not recommended, since kelp forests are important marine ecosystem has declined in recent years.
Aquaculture industry in Norway has now been synonymous coralline algae with aquaculture. Now is the time to cultivate greenery in the ocean, as has been done in Asia for hundreds of years.
There is no doubt that the aquaculture industry is important for the Norwegian economy, but there are major environmental challenges related to the industry. Escaped farmed salmon threatens wild salmon, one of harvests of fish stocks which are used as raw materials for fish feed and fish farms can pollute the local environment through the discharge of nutrients, organic matter and chemicals.
Integrated aquaculture (multi-trophic aquaculture, IMTA) is a strategy to leverage coralline algae industry profits in farming more efficient. Both a waste product coralline algae from fish feces and remains of fish food that sinks to the bottom, can be a tremendous resource for the breeding of other species such as algae and mussels. Today contaminates such organic residues sea and the seabed. Mussels and algae grown adjacent to a private fish farm, can greatly contribute coralline algae to the improvement of environmental quality in the local ecosystem.
Bellona believes it is important to think long-term renewable resources, food production and the environment. IMTA involves a number of benefits in addition to improving environmental quality locally. Breeder of several species, and the cultivation of algae allows for the production of food, fatty acids, medicine and especially bioenergy in a sustainable manner.
Moreover, international trials demonstrated that IMTA can provide coralline algae great financial coralline algae gain. You can utilize the local environment and facilities in a better way by diversity in production than focus on a single monoculture, and it gets higher profit of several products instead of one. There are also more jobs in an environmentally sound industry.
Many countries in the world are investing heavily in algae production and value chains of different species involved, while Norway only barely started research projects. It begins to hurry and get started with the industrialization of a lucrative and green livelihood.
Research has shown that mussels can effectively filter out fish feces and remains of fish feed and use it for food. This organic waste that would otherwise fall to the ocean floor and contaminated.
Mussels have higher growth (about 50 percent faster for both algae and mussels) and more meat yield when grown in joint use with fish, without taste or quality has changed.
Algae also have several positive effects on habitat. They take up phosphorus and nitrogen from excess feed and fiskeavføringen. Algae have the potential to reduce the dissolved nitrogen with 35-100 percent, which helps to improve water quality and fish health significantly.
The circle is completed when algae and mussels used in the production of fish feed. Studies have shown that it also helps to increase fish health. Farmed fish need good quality fish feed, and an important ingredient in fish is omega 3 Omega 3 is a limited resource found only in marine species. In recent years, aquaculture reduced content of farmed fish feed, because it is expensive and contributes to overfishing. The percentage of plant products in fish feed has increased, but there is a limit to how low omega 3 content feed may have before the quality coralline algae of the fish drops.
Marine species coralline algae at a lower trophic level can also be used in feed, such as clams, tunicates, crustaceans and polychaetes. The species, which also has a high omega 3 - and protein content, can be advantageously included in an IMTA project. As with algae and mussels will be able to benefit from surplus food and organic particles sinking coralline algae from fish farms.
Sugar kelp (Laminaria saccharina) usually grows on beskytted