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Characterising the fate of nitrogenous waste from the sea-cage aquaculture of spiny lobsters using numerical modelling

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Abstract

Although the aquaculture of spiny lobsters has been expanding since the 1970s, very little is known about the potential environmental impacts on water quality of this activity. This study quantified the production of dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) from Australasian red spiny lobsters, Jasus edwardsii, in the laboratory, and these data were then used in a numerical model to predict the dispersal pattern of DIN from a hypothetical commercial spiny lobster farm for a coastal site where such a farm would typically be located. Modelling scenarios were set up with combinations of two different stocking densities (3 and 5 kg m−3), two different diets (mussels and moist artificial diet) and three different feed conversion ratios (FCR = 3, 5 and 28). DIN excretion rate from unfed lobsters in the laboratory on average was 1.10 ± 0.12 μg N g−1 h−1 while feeding lobsters on mussels and artificial diet increased DIN excretion significantly by around eightfold and twofold, respectively. Ammonia was consistently the dominant contributor to measured DIN output from lobsters. Modelling results indicated that the mean elevated DIN from a hypothetical farm where the lobsters were fed with mussels ranged from 7 up to 20 μg N L−1 with increasing stocking density and FCR and was 30–150 % higher than the mean elevated DIN resulting from lobsters fed with artificial diet. Overall, the results indicated that DIN output from the hypothetical spiny lobster sea-cage farming is unlikely to be problematic using the FCR, stocking density, and the number of cages modelled at the coastal site in this study. Furthermore, feeding lobsters with artificial diet can help maintain a lower DIN output than seafood, such as mussels or trash fish.

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Acknowledgments

This project was supported by the University of Auckland, New Zealand, the Glenn Family Foundation and the Australian Research Council’s Industrial Transformation Research Hub, Project ID IH120100032. We are grateful to DHI Water and Environment (M) Sdn. Bhd for assistance with the hydrodynamic and ecological modelling. Special thanks to Alan Kerroux for the development and modification of the ECO Lab template. The authors would also like to thank Peter Browne and Brian Dobson for technical support. The research was conducted under University of Auckland Animal Ethics Committee approval number R929.

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  1. Leigh Marine Laboratory, Institute of Marine Science, University of Auckland, P.O. Box 349, Warkworth, New Zealand

    Soxi Lee & Andrew Jeffs

  2. No. 28, Taman Manikar, Likas, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

    Neil D. Hartstein

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  1. Soxi Lee
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  2. Neil D. Hartstein
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Correspondence to Soxi Lee.

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Lee, S., Hartstein, N.D. & Jeffs, A. Characterising the fate of nitrogenous waste from the sea-cage aquaculture of spiny lobsters using numerical modelling. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 9356–9369 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-4035-9

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