Culture, yield and bioremediation potential of Palmaria palmata (Linnaeus) Weber & Mohr and Saccharina latissima (Linnaeus) C.E. Lane, C. Mayes, Druehl & G.W. Saunders adjacent to fish farm cages in northwest Scotland

Published source details Sanderson J.C., Dring M.J., Davidson K. & Kelly M.S. (2012) Culture, yield and bioremediation potential of Palmaria palmata (Linnaeus) Weber & Mohr and Saccharina latissima (Linnaeus) C.E. Lane, C. Mayes, Druehl & G.W. Saunders adjacent to fish farm cages in northwest Scotland. Aquaculture, 354-355, 128-135.
Share Tweet Email

Actions

This study is summarised as evidence for the following.

	Action	Category
	Integrated aquaculture systems Action Link

Integrated aquaculture systems

Between 2004 and 2005, a replicated, controlled trial in Scotland between 2004 and 2005 (Sanderson et al., 2012) found that growth of two algae species, Palmaria palmata and Saccharina latissima was enhanced when grown close to fish farm cages. Algae grown on frames adjacent to fish farms had 63% and 27% greater fresh weight biomass compared to algae grown on frames away from fish farms for P.palmata and S.latissima respectively. A similar pattern was observed for algae grown on longlines.
Nitrogen content of the algae grown at reference sites away from the cages was lower than those grown close to the fish cages (Percentage nitrogen in: farm frames- 4.6 and 1.90%, reference frames- 2.3 and 1.23%, farm longlines- 2.7 and 1.65% and reference longlines- 2.0 and 1.29% for P.palmata and S.latissima respectively).
Algae were grown at three sites adjacent to fish farm cages and at seven other sites distant from fish farm cages. Attached to three buoyed frames at each site were stings with P. palmata at 1–1.8 m depth and ropes with S. latissima at 1.8–2.6 m depth. In addition, three longlines were put in place, two at reference sites away from the cages and one running perpendicular to a group of cages. Seeded string of 2 to 6 m lengths of P.palmata was deployed three times throughout the experiment. Three groups of five droppers were attached to each longline. Droppers of S. latissima consisted of 7 m lengths of 10mm three-strand polypropylene rope with 10 cm lengths of seeded string inserted into the lay of the rope at depths of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 m.