Preserving Britain's sea life with sustainable aquaculture

Date: 16 June 2011

Bournemouth University student Sean Graham pilots a new sustainable way of producing fish in Britain.

Bournemouth University student Sean Graham is piloting a new sustainable way of producing fish in Britain. He is also checking if consumers are ready for the change by carrying out blind taste testing to determine whether less traditional, yet more sustainable varieties of fish species could be marketed to the British public.

Sean, who is studying for an MSc in Biodiversity and Conservation said: “People tend to buy fish on the basis of familiarity, rather than evaluating it as a sustainable product and finding out if alternative more sustainable fish could provide similar tastes, lower costs and better long term prospects for the planet.”

The blind tasting sessions are taking place at Bournemouth University throughout June. People are invited to sample both traditional and non-traditional samples of cooked fish and offer feedback on taste, texture, quality and other factors. The results will determine whether there is a more sustainable alternative that could satisfy the British public’s hunger.

But how has Britain got to this position in the first place? One heavily contributing factor is that traditional types of fish, such as farmed salmon and trout, need to be fed on pellets derived from wild sea fish. The input-output ratio of these popular varieties is alarming and it can take as much as 4 kg of wild fish to produce 1 kg of farmed.

Sean said: “This is extremely unsustainable. Why not use more sustainable types of fish? Fish that do not need to eat other fish in order to produce a good amount of fish product. I’m looking at the feasibility of ranching plankton feeding fish species in Britain’s reservoirs.”

This part of the project, entitled ‘Aquaculture for Conservation’ should answer the latter, with the end result being knowledge of which sustainable fish varieties are just as tasty as the more traditional types.

Supervising Sean’s project is Professor Rudy Gozlan, Head of Conservation Ecology at Bournemouth University. He said “We need to change the distribution and production of farmed freshwater fish. There are a lot of unused reservoirs throughout Britain. Here we offer a pilot study to ranch plankton feeding species and reduce the issue of algal bloom in reservoirs while producing a sustainable crop that could support local communities. Sean’s project will show that people are ready to change for a new green business venture!”

Taste testing sessions will be held at Talbot Campus, Bournemouth University on 15th, 17th, 22nd, 24th, 29th of June and 1st of July from 12:30-15:00.