IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i19p7224-d423111.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ecological Engineering for the Optimisation of the Land-Based Marine Aquaculture of Coastal Shellfish

Author

Listed:
  • Catharina J. M. Philippart

    (Department of Coastal Systems, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and Utrecht University, P.O. Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg (Texel), The Netherlands)

  • Kiki E. M. Dethmers

    (Department of Coastal Systems, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and Utrecht University, P.O. Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg (Texel), The Netherlands)

  • Johan van der Molen

    (Department of Coastal Systems, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and Utrecht University, P.O. Box 59, 1790 AB Den Burg (Texel), The Netherlands)

  • André Seinen

    (Meromar Seafoods B.V., Celsiusstraat 15, 8861 NE Harlingen, The Netherlands)

Abstract

Whilst the demand for nutritious and sustainable seafood is increasing, fishing yields are declining due to overfishing and climate change. The inshore aquaculture of marine molluscs—e.g., the suspension-feeding cockle Cerastoderma edule for NW Europe—might be an alternative practice if cost-effective and nature-based technology enhances growth and survival. Our inshore experiments revealed that increasing the seawater residence time resulted in improved water quality. The reduction in sediment loads and stimulation of pelagic microalgal growth resulted in enhanced shell growth and meat content of the wild cockles seeded into the system. Shorter residence times resulted also in an increase in benthic microalgae, but the concurrent increase in silt content of the sediment appeared to hamper effective filtration by cockles. The growth conditions (with respect to the water and sediment quality) for the inshore cultivation of cockles can indeed be improved by means of ecological engineering, suggesting that the inshore aquaculture of marine shellfish can provide sustainable food and income for coastal communities, in particular when the shellfish farms are located in low-lying salinized coastal areas where common agriculture practices are no longer profitable. The involvement of the shellfishery industry was and will be crucial for studying and understanding the complex practice of cockle cultivation.

Suggested Citation

  • Catharina J. M. Philippart & Kiki E. M. Dethmers & Johan van der Molen & André Seinen, 2020. "Ecological Engineering for the Optimisation of the Land-Based Marine Aquaculture of Coastal Shellfish," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(19), pages 1-23, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:19:p:7224-:d:423111
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/7224/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/7224/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rebecca R. Gentry & Elizabeth O. Ruff & Sarah E. Lester, 2019. "Temporal patterns of adoption of mariculture innovation globally," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 2(10), pages 949-956, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christopher M Free & Tracey Mangin & Jorge García Molinos & Elena Ojea & Merrick Burden & Christopher Costello & Steven D Gaines, 2020. "Realistic fisheries management reforms could mitigate the impacts of climate change in most countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(3), pages 1-21, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:19:p:7224-:d:423111. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.