Scientists Experiment with Solutions to Fishery Crisis

Completely cultured indoor marine fish may become the answer to the estimates of the wipe out of edible marine fish from the seas by 2048.

Scientists at the Biotechnology Institute of the University of Maryland, Centre for Marine Biotechnology, in the US, are creating what may be the next generation of seafood. It may be a step ahead of the ecologically damaging 'net pens' used to culture marine fish in countries like Israel.

Using the city-supplied water and a complex microbial filtration system, the US scientists are raising hundreds of marine fish completely indoors. Yonathan Zohar, the centre's director and the study's leader, said, "it is the first indoor marine aquaculture system that can re-circulate nearly all of its water and expel zero waste.

" If Zohar's team succeeds, the system could become economically competitive with current marine fish farming techniques, and it may be a sustainable answer to the world's growing fishery crisis, says a report from the World Watch Institute.

Some estimates say as much as 90% of edible marine fish may disappear by 2048. The most common alternative is through fish farms that raise ocean-captured fish in coastal nets called 'net pens'. Marine aquaculture expanded about 10% each year between 2000 and 2004, according to the UN Food And Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

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