Fin-fish farming: Environmental Impact Assessment
Once you have found a potential site for a new fish farm, it may be necessary to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). Further details of this process can be found at Informing on Consistent EIA and the example EIAs carried out at ECASA study sites are listed at ECASA SS EIA.
Models can help estimate the impacts of the wastes from a proposed farm on both the farm and the water-body scales, and they can be used to find the size of farm that will remain within the site's or water body's assimilative capacity for waste. Farm-scale models were listed on the Finding a site page. Below are listed models that can be applied to the water-body scale. See also: choosing a model.
| Model (alphabetical order) | Model category: scale and relevance | Environment category | Fish type for which applicable | Tested at ECASA sites: |
| FjordEnv includes 3-layer hydrodynamic model | B:water body; effects on water column | Narrow Regions of Restricted Exchange | salmon, sea-bream, sea-bass | Creran, Vidlin, Cephalonia |
LESV includes 3-layer hydrodynamic model | B:water body; effects on water column | Narrow Regions of Restricted Exchange | salmon | Creran |
| TRIMODENA includes LPT - particle tracking, and HYDRO - gridded 3D hydrodynamic model | B:water body - effects on sea-bed | Mediterranean open coastal water | tuna ? | no report available |
Indicators can be measured to estimate the sensitivity of the site to pressure from the proposed farm, and also to establish base-line conditions against which future change can be assessed.
