To do away with the shortcoming of coastal fish farming in Singapore, Infrastructure consultancy Surbana Jurong has come up with a feasible solution. The consultancy presented the idea of a farm system, which will require not only lesser space but also produce more fishes.
Vertical, multi-storey fish farms on rooftops, parks or even under viaducts is the answer and guess what? This will help the contamination problem the existing fish farms were facing.
Coastal fish farming in Singapore, though a thriving industry faces some serious challenges. Often the waste products, such rotting foods, feces and dead fishes, are flushed into the water supply contaminates it and raises serious health concerns.
The firm unveiled its Floating Pond concept on Monday (September 4), developed over the last four years.
Surbana Jurong held discussions with the Urban Redevelopment Authority and JTC Corporation, but did not confirm when the concept would be put into action.
A three-storey prototype is already in action at the Apollo Aquaculture Group's farm. It has six ponds, two on each level. Each pond measures about 135 sqm, with the fish fry holding capacity of a minimum 22,000.
"The farming sector is vibrant in Singapore but there are obvious space constraints here. We need to break away from the conventional mould and advocate new ways of farming", says Mr Eric Ng, group chief executive of Apollo Aquaculture Group.
The plan is to increase this to six storeys, yielding 5,000 tonnes of fish per year which is more than six times the amount of fish from a fish farm of the same land space. The prototype will be further upgraded to have self-sustainable features with solar panels to harness energy from the sun, rainwater collecting system and a waste water purifier which reuses leftover nutrients as fish feed, said the firm in a statement.
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