July 6, 2007

Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture makes its mark on the Internet
 

Aquaculture experts are working to have the word "Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA)" on Wikipedia - the Internet's biggest free-content encyclopedia.

Gregor Reid, a jointly appointed Post Doctoral Fellow with the University of New Brunswick and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, wrote an article on IMTA for the website, with the help of several contributors.

IMTA is an aquaculture practice in which the by-products (wastes) from one species are recycled to become inputs (fertilisers, food) for another.

The principle of IMTA involves fed aquaculture ( fish, shrimp) is combined with inorganic extractive (e.g. seaweed) and organic extractive (e.g. shellfish) aquaculture.

Such practices aims to create balanced systems for environmental sustainability, economic stability (product diversification and risk reduction) and social acceptability (better management practices).

Current IMTA underway include those in Canada, Chile, Israel, South Africa and the UK.

In Canada, a collaborative project with industry, academia and government involvement is presently expanding production to commercial scale. The project would explore Atlantic salmon, blue mussels and kelps as the main subjects.

Another project by The Scottish Association for Marine Science, is working on the development of IMTA systems by co-culturing salmon, oysters, sea urchins, and brown and red seaweeds. The research would focus on biological and physical processes, as well as production economics and environmental impacts.

Wikipedia is the biggest multilingual free-content encyclopedia on the Internet.