Background

Aquaculture can be defined as the farming of aquatic organisms where farming implies some degree of caring for the stock. This age-old practice ranges from simply keeping fish in a pond for later consumption to the high-tech, high capital business of cultivating tuna in offshore sea cages. Aquaculture is practiced for many purposes i.e. medicinal uses of sponges or seaweed, ornamental value of coral, fish for human consumption, re-stocking depleted wild populations or for educational purposes.

On a global scale aquaculture has been valued at R660 billion, and growing rapidly, with Africa accounting for only 0.1% of that total. In South Africa aquaculture largely focuses around the cultivation of abalone, trout, oysters and mussels but tilapia, prawn, ornamental fishes and catfish are also cultivated. Our coastline is not ideally suited to offshore cage-culture as it is exposed to the full force of the Indian and Atlantic oceans and potential aquaculture sites are therefore extremely limited. Espadon Marine intends to farm their fish on-land in tanks which are connected to large filtration systems, thereby allowing the clean water to be recirculated back to the fish. The cultivation of marine finfish species is relatively new to South Africa and it is within this sector of the industry that Espadon Marine is leading the way in developing this kind of exciting aquaculture.

Other Aquaculture Pages:
Fish Production | System Engineering | Aquaculture Research