The Science behind ECASA
Our objectives in ECASA were:
- To identify quantitative and qualitative indicators of the effects of aquaculture on the environment and vice-versa, and to assess their applicability
- To develop operational tools, including models, to establish and describe the relationship between environmental conditions and aquaculture activities over a range of ecosystems and aquaculture production systems
- To develop effective environmental impact assessment and site selection methods for coastal area management
To achieve these objectives, we took the following approach:
- Identified plausible quantitative indicators of the effects of aquaculture on ecosystems through a process of expert working groups, workshops and meetings
- Identified indicators of the main drivers of ecosystem change affecting aquaculture, including natural and environmental pressures
- Assessed both sets of indicators using existing datasets
- Assessed a range of tools, particularly models, that encapsulate best process understanding at a range of scales
- Tested these models and indicators at 13 field locations across Europe encompassing major culture species and technologies
- Used these data to test and select the final “toolpack” of models and indicators, including appropriate support to guide users to the most relevant tools.
It is this toolbox that you are considering now, the final product of the project.
A very wide range of indicators and models have been developed by scientists over the past 20 years or so. Only a few of these have been adopted by regulators of the industry, and sometimes regulatory approaches have been developed without consideration of either the latest scientific advances or the tools used in other countries. We hope that by bringing together and testing a sub-set of the commonly used tools we will be able to aid the regulator in selecting the correct tools and aid the scientific community in assessing research gaps and deficiencies that require to be addressed. In this way the industry in Europe can evolve sustainably under a more coherent and unified regulatory regime.
You may also be interested in looking at the other introductory materials in this section:
- About the ecosystem approach as perceived and used by ECASA
- About the definitions of scales - read this to understand the difference between farm scale, water body scale, regional scale
The following links provide a further list of links to Models, Indicators and Case Studies of relevance to farming several species:
- Models that have been tested for salmon, cod, sea bass, sea bream, oyster and mussel farms
- Indicators that have been tested for salmon, cod, sea bass, sea bream, oyster and mussel farms
- Case studies on salmon, cod, sea bass, sea bream, oyster and mussel farms
- Other useful documents relevant to salmon, cod, sea bass, sea bream, oyster and mussel farms
The following are links to study site reports by region:
