Wageningen Aquaculture: Innovations for sustainable aquaculture
Wageningen Aquaculture is a centre for research and innovations in aquaculture. It brings together all aquaculture specialists at Wageningen University and Wageningen IMARES, and is supported by expertise from Wageningen University and Research centre (Wageningen UR). Wageningen Aquaculture occupies a strong position in the European arena of aquaculture research and development.
Aquaculture is a fast-growing food production industry. While commercial aquaculture only arose some 30 years ago, it now produces about half of the world fish supply for human consumption. This rapid development has brought with it considerable challenges, particularly in relation to environmental sustainability. In contrast to the field of animal husbandry, knowledge on sustainable aquaculture is still at its infancy. Much still needs to be learned about optimal conditions for reproduction and growth. At Wageningen Aquaculture we look at these issues in a holistic way, and identify solutions from the physiological up to the ecological level.
Our physiological research addresses the question of how fish cope with changes in their farm-rearing environment. Subjects range from how feed ingredients affect growth, fish behaviour and welfare, to how the microbial communities present in the water affect the taste of fish meat. Our ecological research looks at how the production system can be adapted to environmental requirements. This ranges from reducing nutrient discharge from Pangasius culture in Vietnam to reduction of energy consumption in recirculation systems in the Netherlands. Through its holistic approach, Wageningen Aquaculture is developing an agenda for innovation towards sustainable aquaculture.
Four working groups create the necessary environment for scientific inspiration, spanning fundamental scientific research to system engineering.
- The physiology group focuses on the cellular and physiological mechanisms underlying growth, stress, behaviour, reproduction and genetics. The group’s activities contribute to our understanding of fish robustness in an aquacultural environment. The species studied range from commercial species for European aquaculture to model organisms such as Zebra fish.
- The nutrition group concentrates on the nutritional requirements of new fish species such as Pangasius, Tilapia and Sole. Its aim is to find out how feeds and feeding can contribute to improved growth and to a cleaner rearing environment and to reduced waste output. This will increase our understanding of the interaction between feeds and feeding and the robustness and vitality of the animal.
- The working group on aquaculture systems aims at developing robust production systems which allow animals to be reared in a predictable and profitable way, with a minimum loss of nutrients and a low impact on the environment, while at the same time providing a healthy environment for the fish. The focus is on intensive, feed-driven and closed systems such as Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS), which can be used for fish, shellfish, ornamentals and invertebrate organisms such as corals and sponges. The group investigates the robustness of systems to external (feed compositions, temperature or water quality) and internal (fish performance, type of species) interferences.
- The group on environmental impact and farming Systems focuses on environmental impact mitigation, developing tools to measure and report sustainability of aquaculture farming systems using a Life Cycle Approach, and designing criteria for nutrient recycling systems, such as Integrated Multitrophic Aquaculture Systems (IMTA) and aqua-parks.
Wageningen Aquaculture will develop new research, often through academic PhD studies, as a baseline for more applied contract research, consultancies and policy support activities, for both private and public organisations. Wageningen Aquaculture actively seeks public-private partnerships as a tool for its innovation agenda in aquaculture.