Members of the international aquaculture community joined the online event, Energy and Water Efficiency in the Aquaculture Sector: Examples of best practice and launch of e-learning platform on 12th May 2021. An outcome of the EU-funded EWEAS Project (eweasproject.eu), the event was hosted by AquaTT, Ireland.
The meeting opened with presentations by aquaculture experts covering the theme of sustainability in the sector. These included Energy Efficiency in Recirculating AquacultureSystems (Maddi Badiola, Alpha Aqua A/S and HTH Aquametrics LLC); Sustainability and Resource Efficiency in an Aquaculture Pond System in Ireland (Damien Toner, An BoardIascaighMhara); The Reduction of Water and Energy Usage in Seafood Processing (Israel Muñoz, Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology, Catalunya) and an Overview of the EWEAS Project (Mercedes Rodríguez-Caro de la Rosa, SGSTecnos).
An interactive discussion followed covering a wide range of important topics, particularly focussed on how to generalise energy and water efficiency measures when aquaculture facilities are so variable, not only in relation to their structure and function but also the external pressures from particular climatic or local conditions. The panel highlighted the importance of energy audits to understand the system and design tailored solutions. There are also easy, universal improvements to be made by improving lighting, pumping and heating efficiency, or the application of local renewable energy generations. All of these areas are covered in the free EWEAS online training programme.
The second part of the event was comprised of parallel sessions in English, Italian, Latvian, Slovenian and Spanish to demonstrate and discuss the new e-learning platform developed by EWEAS.
The meeting was very well attended, with more than 170 registered participantsrepresenting 32 countries covering all continents (except Antarctica!), 50% of whom were from commercial organisations. This demonstrates the significant global and commercial interest in developing pathways to improve sustainability in the aquaculture sector, addressing both environmental and economic motivations.
The EWEAS e-learning platform on Energy and Water Efficiency in the Aquaculture Sector launches at the end of May 2021. A beta testing version is freely accessible now at eweastraining.eu.
Source: AquaTT
