Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) is not a new idea: cultures in ancient Egypt and China used these natural techniques, says Yarish. By bringing animals and plants from different trophic levels – different levels on the food chain – into the same place, aquaculture can function more like a natural ecosystem.
Over the past year, Charles Yarish and his colleagues received nearly $200,000 in funding from the Connecticut Sea Grant College Program and the NOAA Small Business Innovation Fund both to grow seaweeds for human consumption and to develop technologies that will support IMTA in New England coastal waters.
Many types of seaweed need water rich in inorganic nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous to survive. “Fish poop,” says Yarish, is made up of just these nutrients, and so provides sustenance for the seaweeds. Human products that find their way into waterways, such as nutrients derived from sewage treatment facilities and from land runoff, also provide these nutrients.
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