Pollution from fish farms off Malta’s shores may be having a negative impact on local tourism. Yet future scenarios for the global industry are looking stormier as climate change sets in.
“How much climate change can we deal with before we really need to implement adapation?” was the key question posed by AquaBioTech marine environmental consultant Rachel Cox at the start of a meeting held last month. The international consultancy specialising in salt-water aquaculture has a regional office in Malta.
Understanding when and how the tourism, aquaculture, energy generation and marine transport sectors on European islands may have to adapt to climate change was the theme of parallel sessions held recently by the international consultants.
AquaBioTech, local partners for SoClimPact, a project co-financed by the research and innovation programme Horizon2020, organised the stakeholder meetings last month with support from the marine industries agency, Malta Marittima.
One organiser expressed disappointment about the reluctance of most local fish farm operators in Malta to take part in the research project from which they could stand to benefit.
The project aims to model and assess socio-economic impacts of climate change on islands in different regions of the EU, including the Caribbean French Antilles.
Another 11 islands to be investigated are in the Baltic and Mediterranean seas and the Atlantic Ocean, with Malta and Cyprus the only two small-island States taking part in the Soclimpact consortium.
The four economic sectors covered by the project are viewed within a ‘Blue Economy’ framework created by the European Commission to promote the sustainable use of marine resources and protect marine ecosystems.
Europe is under international pressure to match Paris agreement climate goals and pin average global temperature rise down to 1.5 degrees centigrade. Malta is the fourth highest contributor to Europe’s ‘Blue Economy’ after Croatia, Denmark and Greece.
The first phase of the three-year project looks at the risks to each sector – exposure, vulnerabilities and how sensitive each sector is to climate change.
Waste management, a fifth ‘Blue Economy’ sector, does not fall within the scope of the project. Floating of plans to locate landfills offshore on artificial islands made of building waste have lost credibility in the face of increasing challenges expected at sea as the climate changes.
A higher frequency and intensity of storms with high waves and storm surges that climate change will bring is expected to impact open-sea fish farms, noted AquaBioTech’s senior aquaculture consultant, Kyra Hoevenaars.
Increased fragility of aquaculture due to more extreme weather events could see further stock losses, damage to facilities and structures, repair/replacement costs and rising insurance costs.
The SoClimPact project will study impacts for Malta’s fish farm industry from both a Mediterranean-wide viewpoint and specifically for each island. Data can be scaled down to individual fish farms, making information more relevant and freely available to all participants.
Increased fragility of aquaculture due to more extreme weather events could see further stock losses
Stefano Moncada, representing the Islands and Small States Institute of the University of Malta, pointed out that incompatibility of data could prove to be “a challenge”.
Current EU textbook solutions for decarbonisation may be out of line with the small island context, he added.
According to this year’s UN Food and Agriculture report on the state of world’s fisheries and aquaculture, production from fish farms in 2016 provided more than half of all fish consumed by humans.
“Human societies face the enormous challenge of having to provide food and livelihoods to a population well in excess of nine billion people by the middle of the 21st century while addressing the disproportionate impacts of climate change and environmental degradation on the resource base.” (The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture – FAO 2018)
Harvests of wild sources of fish, crustaceans and other aquatic species cannot keep up with the demands of a growing human population. Although aquaculture growth has slowed since an initial boom, African fish farms in particular are expected to continue expanding at a fast rate.
The lucrative Japanese tuna market is expected to move to larger premises this month as the old Tsujiki market’s ageing air-conditioning system struggled to keep up with scorching temperatures this summer.
Locally, solutions to drawbacks of aquaculture still have to be found, as has been seen with the oily fish farm ‘slime’ washing up on Maltese beaches.
Various research projects have been testing ways of using waste by-products of farmed fish as food for surrounding species. Combining fed fish with harvests of seaweed and shellfish cultivated nearby helps create a more balanced system.
Malta Fish Farming Ltd, which at present does not farm tuna, is the only local aquaculture venture to join the SoClimPact project so far. The company supports research by university students on different species of future interest to the aquaculture industry in Malta.
Trials funded by the company have been ongoing for the use of sea urchins, sea cucumbers and an edible green algae known as ‘sea lettuce’ to reduce some of the environmental effects from farming of sea bass, sea bream and meagre.
Known as integrated multitrophic aquaculture, the concept is being further developed within a separate Horizon 2020 project. Since last April, AquaBioTech has been collecting data from an aquaculture site in Malta to help develop and assess this method.
Commenting on surface pollution of Maltese waters and coastlines, hatchery and production manager Angus Sharman at MFF Ltd confirmed that farmed tuna were presently fed wild fish which may be aggravating the problem. He referred to efforts in the industry globally to develop feed pellets which could reduce the environmental impact from fish farms.
Tuna are not fond of dry pellets but a Japanese university has been experimenting with a more moist ‘sausage’ to discover a combination of ingredients which the tuna will accept.
Malta Marittima agency head Franco Schembri spoke of the need for all Blue Economy sectors to build bridges and exploit research opportunities together.
“In Malta we are still doing things the way they were done 20 years ago. Scientific research brings the benefit of more responsible use of the seas. It should not be viewed only as a costly, time-consuming exercise but as an investment,” he said.
This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece