ABSTRACT
Aquaculture is the world’s fastest growing food production sector (Montet and Ray, 2009). It was once considered an environmentally sound practice because of its traditional polyculture and integrated systems of farming based on optimum utilization of farm resources, including farm wastes. Increased production is being achieved now by the expansion of land and water under culture and the use of more intensive and modern farming technologies that involve higher usage of inputs such as water, feeds, fertilizers and chemicals. These fed fi sh farms produce large amounts of wastes, including dissolved inorganic nitrogen and phosphorus. Likewise, marine aquaculture effl uents generate substantial amounts of nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorus) and organic matter that exert a biological oxygen demand (BOD) contributing to the deterioration of the quality of receiving water. Effl uent water from fi sh and shrimp farms typically contains dissolved nutrients and suspended particulates which have been implicated as causing signifi cant environmental impacts such as eutrophication (Jones et al., 2001). The cumulative impact of shrimp/ fi sh farm wastewater discharges on coasts as a whole and the discharges of several farms on a single bay is therefore, a serious concern. As the aquaculture industry develops, effi cient, cost-effective and environmentally
1Department of Fishery Products, Faculty of Fisheries Kasetsart University, Bangkok 10900, Thailand; Tel.: 66-2-5790113 press 4088; Fax: 66-2-9428644 press 12; E-mail: ffi swcw@ku.ac.th 2Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (Regional Centre), Bhubaneswar 751 019, India; Tel/Fax: 91-674-2470528; E-mail: rc_rayctcri@rediffmail.com *Corresponding author
friendly preventive and bioremediation methods of improving effl uent water quality prior to discharge into receiving waters of sensitive areas are the priority (Jones et al., 2001). Therefore, regulatory agencies have developed standards and criteria for the aquaculture industry concerning effl uent disposal (Kinne et al., 2001). Similarly, fi sh and shrimp processing industry generate large amounts of wastes that generally account for > 50% of the live weight. Major by-products generated through processing include visceral wastes, scales, waste (wash) water, fi lling wastes (head, frame bones, skins and fi ns), air bladders, body/head shell wastes, calcareous shells, etc. These wastes, unless undergoing bioremediation can cause serious environmental problems in term of obnoxious odour and emission of toxic gas like ammonia, hydrogen sulphide, etc. In this context, disease management, productivity, good processing practices and environment protection are the four key factors for successful and sustainable aquaculture. The present chapter presents an overview of the principles and applications of bio-/microbial-remediation in addressing the waste management of fi sh and shrimp culture systems and processing industry wastes.
