Overview
The goal of the study is to conduct Area, Production, and Yield (APY) analysis, in a way never done before, and bring out the uniqueness of the study. The findings brought out the key stakeholders of the Underwater Domain Awareness (UDA) framework. Assisting these stakeholders, namely science and technology, the blue economy, the marine environment, and disaster management, subsequent progress in APY analysis and focussing on the shortcomings and potholes can help in determining a sustainable route for the growth of aquaculture in the Indian Ocean region (IOR).
The study accentuates the environmental impacts study of shrimp and seaweed aquaculture and shows up the vast disparities between the two. Shrimps farming clearly showed some negative impacts while the current research on seaweed and their cultivation has shown them to be highly sustainable. They lie on the two ends of the sustainability spectrum. The following points support the argument:
Key highlights
The designed APY compute tool is intended to give two distinct features that are available Data and Parameter Based Analysis. This analysis should encompass two broad areas,
- The Growth Patterns in Area, Yield, and Production: which is required for the assessment of instability and risk by highlighting regions with negative growth patterns or high variability in production,
- The Yield parameter relationship: it entails the establishment of relationship relating the obtained Yield with the parameters affecting the yield.
While the tool has subtle technicalities, it helps us to acquire the estimated results about the production and yield. The model for APY analysis can be seen as a mapper or function, which maps the input parameters to the output yield.
Key recommendations
Technical Aspects:
- For work to be more reliable large datasets are required and Data sets tabulating real-time environmental factors to be made available for research.
- Efforts should be made to perform thorough on-site research to ensure the long-term viability of any aquaculture project.
- Farmers should be made more aware of technology to make the whole project a practical success.
Farming Aspects:
Shrimps
- Growth virtually stops below 18 degrees C and is optimal around 30 degrees C, and
- Lower stocking density & Higher DO levels favor the growth of the shrimps
- The salinity of brackish waters is preferable for the shrimp’s growth
- The optimal pH is slightly above neutral and lies in the range of 8.0 to 9.0 pH
Seaweed
- Temperature of the IOR and water with higher salinity is suitable for higher growth.
- Higher stocking density upsets the organism
- With higher turbidity, the attenuation of the light wave in the water also increases
- Lower solar irradiance inhibits photosynthesis, diminishes the growth rate
- Very high exposure to light causes the thallus tissue loss.
“Shrimps farming clearly showed some negative impacts while the current research on seaweed and their cultivation has shown them to be highly sustainable. They lie on the two ends of the sustainability spectrum.”
