Realizing the promises of marine biotechnology
Section snippets
Introduction: The Netherlands and the sea
The Dutch have always had an ambiguous relation with the sea. On the one hand, the Netherlands, with almost half of its surface below sea level, has always fought against the powers of the sea. On February 1, 2003 it was over 50 years since the Dutch experienced the ‘last’ huge flood disaster that killed almost 2000 people. Then it was decided to build the Delta works, a big and prestigious project of dikes and storm surge barriers. On the other hand, the Netherlands is a nation of seagoing
Exploring the future
The Netherlands Study Centre for Technology Trends (STT) is an independent organisation that explores the future for specific topics at the interface of technical scientific and societal developments. Such an exploratory study project starts from the premise that the future is shaped by decisions that are taken today. Therefore, a series of meetings is organised in which 50–70 external experts (having a stake in the topic of the specific study project) participate actively in exploring and
The design-group Aqua-Production Park: composition and challenge
In this paper, we show some of the work-in-progress of the design group Aqua-Production Park. Marine biotechnology is one of the foci of attention. The design group Aqua-Production Park is envisioning the future of strong land-based ‘marine’ market chains.
The composition of the design-group—17 experts—is characterised by:
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a relatively large number of ‘pioneering entrepreneurs’ (five): production of sea fish—sole and turbot—in recirculation systems, production of sea vegetables, macroalgae and
Results: work in progress
The experts started with their dreams about their personal ‘sustainable Aqua-Production Park’. The following discussions and exchanges resulted in a list of requirements for a sustainable Aqua-Production Park:
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The cultivation and processing of marine organisms is independent of the marine environment. The natural marine diversity is a source of inspiration for land-based production: only sea water may be used.
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Thinking about a strong market chain for marine products starts with the ‘needs of
Conclusion
The developments of growing exploitation of the sea, environmental pressure on fish stocks and on other marine species and the impeding conflict of users of the limited sea surface, require a pro-active policy. Realizing a sustainable future exploitation of the marine environment starts today. The Ocean Farming study project shows that it is possible to materialize these imaginary future visions. The design group Aqua-Production Park shows that land-based production may be a sustainable
Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge all members of the design-group Aqua-Production Park: Robert Baard (AquaCultura bv), Wim van Eijk (Product board Fish), Pauline Kamermans and Andries Kamstra (Netherlands Institute of Fisheries Research), Kees Kloet (Fish Farm Yerseke), Hans Komen and René Wijffels (Wageningen University), Andries Koulman (University of Groningen), Victor de Lange (Consultancy and Research for Environmental Management), Hannemieke Luyten and Lolke Sijtsma (Agrotechnological Research
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