THE PROBLEM

Mariculture plants are a major problem for the environment. Fish (bream and seabass) are raised intensively in submarine cages located in the sea and their waste (dejections) can not be conveyed to recycling and abatement plants as well as those on the ground.

The main objective of the REMEDIA project is

the reduction of the environmental impacts of mariculture plants, at the same time creating new environmental and economic value.

RECYCLING

everyone knows this word and everyone knows what it means: to use a material that is normally discarded, bringing it back into “work” to “create new economic value”. Combining the environmental aspects with the economic aspects is always very difficult but in this project “THE VIRTUOS CIRCLE ” that it is possible to generate has innumerable advantages. (see explanatory diagram)

THE PROPOSED SOLUTION

The REMEDIA project aims to achieve environmental rehabilitation using a new set of organisms:

Natural biofilters, which are placed under the submersible cages in appropriate structures, feed on the dejections of the fish in the breeding, cleaning the water and generating new “precious” biomass that can in turn be an important source of income for the mariculture plant.

But which are the bioremediators?: they are marine invertebrates that live by passing huge quantities of water through their filtering structures. Invertebrates are animals and therefore feed on small organisms and organic matter. Macroalgae, on the other hand, are plants and therefore feed on inorganic substances.

Mussels (mussels) and oysters: they are a delicious and highly appreciated component of Mediterranean cuisine

Polychaetes: can be used as bait in sport fishing at sea or as ornamental organisms in marine aquariums or if produced in large quantities as feed for the same mariculture plants.

Sponges and algae: can be used in the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical or cosmetic industries to make “natural” products. In particular, algae can be used as a valuable fertilizer in horticulture because they contain large quantities of nitrogen.

The REMEDIA project represents the transition from the research to the industrial phase and is the basis of a process that goes from producers to the industry of processing and use of products.