From Asia to Africa to Europe aquaculture is taking middle stage to elevate folks out of poverty, assist replenish wild shares and supply a sustainable supply of inexpensive protein. Partly one of many SeaWestNews collection, Sea the Future, we take a look at how fish farming is shaping the financial system of Greece and the Mediterranean weight loss program.
Nancy Panteleimonitou’s (pictured) fish farming operations are a part of Greece’s drive to make the aquaculture trade a pillar of its nationwide financial system and a car to assist replenish Mediterranean wild shares.
By Fabian Dawson & Samantha McLeod
SeaWestNews
About three hours from downtown Athens, on the Nafpaktos-Itea street, previous the traditional sanctuary of Delphi and the craggy slopes of Mount Parnassus lies Galaxidi, a picturesque city heralding an period of Greece’s maritime prowess.
Tucked and guarded on the northern coast of the Corinthian Gulf, Galaxidi formed by invasions, sea battles and ocean commerce was house to Greece’s greatest captains, seafarers and shipbuilders.
Their stately homes and church buildings ringed by a promenade on the sting of a deep blue sea, stand majestically right this moment, offering a wide ranging skyline that’s harking back to a neoclassical masterpiece.
Galaxidi is a city on the northern coast of the Corinthian Gulf
The world’s peak of prosperity was from the mid 1800’s to the early 1900’s when Galaxidi-built tall ships with square-rigs and twin-masts, carried an array of cargo from the Black Sea and Mediterranean to and from the ports of Europe, Africa, North and South America.
Galaxidi, nevertheless, didn’t make the profitable transition from sail to steam-powered vessels, and just like the service provider marine powerhouses of Hydra and Spetses, the city misplaced its financial lustre.
Right this moment a special sort of maritime prowess is taking maintain on this coastal group the place serenity and science go hand in hand.
As Greece is gripped within the throes of an financial disaster, the pocket books of Galaxidi stay largely sheltered due to aquaculture, which is reshaping the Mediterranean weight loss program whereas restocking the native seas.
“Now we have not laid off or decreased the salaries of any of our folks,” mentioned Nancy Panteleimonitou, the managing director of Galaxidi Marine Farm SA (GMF), which is the financial lifeline of the city, using greater than a 3rd of its 1000 residents.
The sprightly 68-year-old, who continuously dons an organization T-shirt that reads We do it in Cages, just isn’t solely the corporate’s matriarch however the aunt to all in Galaxidi.
SeaWestNews met with Nancy (the title she insists we use) at her sprawling house, which is definitely a refurbished 25-room resort, situated in one of many many secluded bays close to GMF’s deep sea pens.
Right here, amidst a throng of visiting associates and kinfolk, firm officers dropping off their youngsters to make use of the saltwater pool and a cautious brood of rescued mongrels, Greece’s first girl of aquaculture, recounted that she obtained into fish farming “by chance”.
“I used to be travelling with a pal round Greece once we got here throughout this operation within the sea…I used to be curious so I went all the way down to see it,” mentioned Nancy, whose father owned Greece’s first Ford dealership.
“My father liked the ocean and at all times took me fishing…so it was pure for me to go discover out what was occurring,” mentioned the one-time insurance coverage government and tenting floor cook dinner.
Inside weeks of her preliminary aquaculture encounter, Nancy was working for the operation making meals for the employees, feeding the fish and tending to the cages.
“When the man determined to promote, the Norwegians who needed to purchase it requested me to remain and run it for some time so I did as a result of I fell in love with farming fish…I had by no means needed to remain in a single job for lengthy…now take a look at me…it’s been greater than 30 years”
Nancy’s rise on this planet of European aquaculture has been nothing in need of meteoric as she surrounded herself with scientists, marine biologists and conventional fishermen looking for new incomes because the Mediterranean wild-stocks disappeared resulting from overfishing and air pollution.
Other than 5 rising models, GMF additionally has a separate natural rising operation operated by a husbandry of natural idea within the Corinthian Gulf.
The Mediterranean is the world’s most overfished sea, with some 62.2% of fish shares depleting quick, in keeping with the UN’s Meals and Agriculture Group (FAO).
“No one desires a sea so acquainted to many people to don’t have any fish for folks to eat or no extra jobs and livelihoods for many who rely on fishing within the area,” Lasse Gustavsson, government director of Oceana in Europe, advised Euronews just lately.
Right this moment greater than 69 p.c of all Greek fisheries manufacturing comes from aquaculture and accounts for 11 p.c of complete Greek agricultural exports.
Of the 1,045 aquaculture amenities in Greece, 36 p.c are marine fish-farm websites. The principle species farmed are sea bass and sea bream, notably in offshore circumstances, and mussels, in keeping with Seafood Supply.
Main the pack is Nancy’s Galaxidi Marine Farm SA, which was ranked among the many high firms in Europe with regards to spending on analysis and growth. In response to the latest “2017 EU Industrial R&D Funding Scoreboard” revealed by the European Fee, Galaxidi Marine Farm, spent 36.2 million euros on analysis and growth.
“Fish farming is at all times difficult and continuously altering and the science is essential not just for our enterprise but in addition to guard wild shares,” mentioned Nancy, who based GMF in 1987 and describes herself as “an outdated model boss lady who knocks on wooden on a regular basis”
GMF is without doubt one of the oldest, most well-known European aquaculture firms primarily for its top quality recent Sea Bream, Sea Bass, Purple Porgy, Pandora and Sharp-Snout Sea Bream. Most of its manufacturing is snapped up Spain, Italy, Germany, France and Austria, bringing a lot wanted Euros to Greece.
The corporate has 5 round rising cage models in depths of between 80 and 150 meters, two hatchery websites and a contemporary packing and processing station designed to newest EU specification with automated grading and weighting machines and a fleet of about 35 marine vessels.
Other than the opposite rising models, GMF additionally has a separate natural rising operation operated by a husbandry of natural idea within the Corinthian Gulf.
“Our most engaging benefit is rising fish of their pure setting and the folks of Galaxidi who’ve embraced this trade,” mentioned Nancy, who scoffed on the push by some for sea pen operations to get replaced with land-based fish farming operations.
“This can be a silly thought particularly as a result of in lots of locations there may be not sufficient land to develop meals and lift cows or goats…The science exhibits what we’re doing is true and sustainable in a pure setting.
“They are saying open sea fish farming interferes with nature…I see these fish and feed them day by day. Rising them on land is what’s unnatural… that may intervene with nature,” mentioned Nancy.
“And what is going to occur to locations like Galaxidi…as a result of the large operations will need to develop fish on land nearer to the large markets like Athens…you’ll not solely kill a sustainable trade additionally, you will kill the cities that rely on it.”
Nancy’s fish farming operations are a part of Greece’s drive to make the aquaculture trade a pillar of its nationwide financial system and a vital car to assist replenish its wild shares
For Greece, Nancy’s operations are a part of its drive to make the aquaculture trade a pillar of its nationwide financial system and a vital car to assist replenish its wild shares.
The consultancy firm McKinsey & Co estimated that within the subsequent 10 years, the aquaculture trade in Greece has the potential so as to add €1 billion in gross worth added exports and create 48,000 new jobs.
To understand this potential, the primary congress on Hellenic aquaculture befell in Athens final month.
About 250 members, which included representatives of the aquaculture trade, lecturers, high-ranking Greek authorities officers, in addition to European Fee and European Parliament dignitaries attended the occasion.
“It (aquaculture) encompasses all essential components to turn into a serious financial lever able to delivering appreciable development to the sector of main manufacturing and the social material of the nation, by attracting funding alternatives and creating a number of thousand jobs,” Filippos Petridis, CEO of Ambio, the corporate that organized the occasion, advised native media.
For Nancy, she has not solely seen this occur, she has made it occur in Galaxidi.
One summer season night time, final yr, simply after the moonrise, the townspeople gathered within the backyard of Voula Manouloudi within the Harbour of Galaxidi to honour the “unintentional fish farmer”. An area reporter had already dubbed her the “Queen of Bream”.
She went house that day with a e book stuffed with felicitations from the gathering organized by the Galaxidi Residents Initiative, who thanked her for revitalizing their city, replenishing their sea and restoring their livelihoods.
It’s her most prized possession.
“I’m a fish farmer and that is my life…I consider it’ll assist Greece develop and supply jobs identical to in Galaxidi…and the fishermen right here already inform me they’re seeing the ocean bream come again,” added Nancy.
Extra nations around the globe turning to fish farms: UN
