Bulgarian marine aquaculture: Development and prospects A review

Daniela Klisarova, Dimitar Gerdzhikov, Gergana Kostadinova, Georgi Petkov, Xiuyun Cao, Chunlei Song and Yiyong Zhou

Abstract: The reduction of the fish and non-fish resources in the World Ocean (in particular in the Black Sea) over the last 20 - 30 years is an indisputable fact. This is due to many factors, but anthropogenic ones are dominant. Among them the most important are overfishing of hydrobionts, poor water quality and climate change. A real alternative to compensate these losses and to creat healthy sources of quality seafood for humans is aquaculture - technology that can satisfy the “protein” hunger worldwide. In this regard, the purpose of the present article is to analyze the state of the Bulgarian Black Sea aquaculture and to outline the prospects for its development, based on native and introduced marine species. Modern aquaculture production in Bulgaria is dominated by the production cyprinids and salmonids in freshwater aquaculture farms, and by black mussel (Mytilus galloprovincialis) only in marine aquaculture farms. This imbalance (81.7% vs 18.3%) shows that the resources of the Bulgarian Black Sea water areas are not used sufficiently for this purpose. The in-depth analysis of available literature sources (scientific articles, official reports, monographs, plans and programs, etc.), as well as the shared experience of colleagues from China, the world leader in the field of fish farming and aquaculture, give us grounds to consider the following species as promising for cultivation in the Bulgarian Black Sea water areas: Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss Walbaum, 1792), Mullet (Mugil cephalus Linnaeus, 1758), Turbot (Psetta maxima Linnaeus, 1758), White mussel (species of bivalve molluscs: Chamelea galina Linnaeus, 1758, Donax trunculus Linnaeus, 1758, Mya arenaria Linnaeus, 1758 and Anadara kagoshimensis Tokunaga, 1906), Rapana (Rapana venosa Valenciennes, 1846), shrimp, micro- and macro- algae, introduced marine species like Sea cucumber (Holothuroidea). Future studies will show which species are environmentally friendly and cost-effective for cultivation in Bulgarian Black Sea aquatory.

Keywords: algae; aquaculture; black mussel; Black sea; commercial species; sea cucumber

Date published: 2020-12-15