They are all nice people with nice ideas how to feed the world and save the planet and their own business. No greedy capitalists, they believe to be part of the solution. Persons whom you might like to meet to learn more about their mindset. But…
The German based ‚Seawater Cubes‘ developed a tiny recirculation aquaculture system (RAS) unit consisting of four shipping containers, able to produce nearly 8 tonnes of fish per year. ‚We thought about how to do RAS better and developed the idea of a decentralised, small-scale approach for on-land fish farming and built a prototype of the idea,‘ the CEO says. ‚We’ve achieved a 98 percent survival rate because of the water quality.‘ [2] Fine so—but are the fishes in these narrow tanks eager to survive?
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Good for the fishes?
Seawater Cubes claims that their system helps to keep the stocking density considerably below industry standards, e.g. for Sea bream ’30 percent below the 100 kilo per cubic metres that some scientific papers suggest is possible.‘ Really? This is way beyond usual standards, let alone the species’ natural aggregation habits [3] and its spatial needs for moving horizontally and vertically [4]. At least two of the three founders of Seawater Cubes should know better, having worked for the big RAS plant in Völklingen (Saarland) where Sea breams swim in a huge pool.
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Good for the farmers?
A second question arises: Who is this system designed for? Seawater Cubes claims that its automated unit can be operated as a business alongside, ‚perfect for farmers who are looking to diversify. The daily operation requires about eight hours a week.‘
C’mon, we’ve been there already, farmers in Switzerland, for example, were promised the moon with RAS modules installed in barns that were no longer in use, a flop. The investment for a Seawater Cube system is about 300,000 euros, an amount that can hardly be amortised by a part-time job.
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What can I do as a consumer?
Should I hope that this business idea fails before many farmers have to realise their own failure? Or at least for the sake of millions of innocent fishes?
I could stop from thinking that I need fish once or twice a week to have a healthy live.
Sources:
[1] ursprünglich gepostet auf Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/think.fish/posts/870175951328118/
[2] https://thefishsite.com/articles/the-tiny-ras-with-massive-impact-potential-seawater-cubes
[3] https://fair-fish-database.net/db/species/sparus-aurata/farm/welfarecheck/ (see criterion 5, aggregation) and https://fair-fish-database.net/…/sparus-aurata/farm/advice (see paragraph 7, stocking density)
[4] https://fair-fish-database.net/db/species/sparus-aurata/farm/welfarecheck/ (see criteria 1 to 3)