Technology that reduces water consumption by around 98% is a key feature of new recirculating systems now available to the global aquaculture industry.

This is according to aquaculture specialist, Professor Thomas M Losordo, speaking before this week’s Australasian Aquaculture Conference 2012 in Melbourne.

Professor Losordo, who presented at the Aquaculture Recirculating Technology Short-Course at the Northern Melbourne Institute of TAFE (NMIT), said such technology must be part of the future for the rapidly growing aquaculture industry.

Professor Losordo said recirculating technology is part of the answer to the aquaculture industry becoming more environmentally friendly, however, it is not the only answer.

“We are not immediately going to be moving all aquaculture that’s in the ocean on to the land,” said Professor Losordo, who believes water re-use technology is important, especially for a dry country like Australia.

He said the idea of using water and then re-using it for irrigation purposes makes a lot of sense.

“We have been able to get to a point in technology where the water that goes out of the system is basically environmentally benign,” he said. “You can’t just create a recirculating system – you have to create the recirculating system with waste treatment.

“Treating waste from a tank-based recirculating system is much easier than treating waste coming out of a large pond system or even a net pen system. However, if it is not done correctly, all it is doing is concentrating the waste into a single discharge.”

He concludes, “If you don’t treat that waste or re-use the waste water the recirculation system isn’t green. If you do incorporate into your design waste treatment, then you can locate on a stream, a creek or a marsh and have no impact on that environment at all.”