Explained: What is RAS Aquaculture?

Aquaculture is an innovative industry – it doesn’t stand still for long. Fish farming has traditionally been done in either ponds or sea cages – in fact this practice goes back many millennia.

It is still the case that the vast majority of farms today are of this variety – what are sometimes known as net pen or semi-closed farming systems. But over the past few decades, as aquaculture has rapidly expanded to provide over half of the seafood consumed around the world, it has also frequently innovated and introduced new practices. One of these has been the introduction of closed systems – more commonly known as RAS, which stands for Recirculating Aquaculture Systems.

What are these systems? As you may have guessed from the name, they are sealed off from the environment and replace the natural flow of water in a sea or a lake with a water filtration and recirculation system. As a result, they can be placed on land – and if so they might be referred to as land-based farms.

RAS farms can be sited on land (but aren’t always)

Different Methods, Different Impacts

So is this a better way to farm? At ASC we don’t usually like to make sweeping generalisations, and we won’t make an exception here. It all depends on how a farm is managed. Closed, semi-closed, and net pen systems are simply different ways of producing farmed seafood and each has certain impacts that need to be managed carefully and responsibly – which is where ASC comes in.

In the case of RAS, one of the benefits we have already mentioned – there is more flexibility where a farm can be sited. Farms could be located closer to where consumers are, lowering the economic and environmental costs of transportation. But there is a flip side to that – in many areas or countries land and water are in short supply, so taking a farm out of the water and onto dry land can have other impacts and drawbacks.

Another potential advantage is that RAS farms greatly reduce the risk of escapes or disease transmission to wild fish population by taking the farmed fish out of the natural habitat entirely.

On the other hand, there are certain areas where closed systems are likely to be more impactful. One example is energy use. Constantly recirculating and filtering water, and ensuring conditions remain right for the fish requires much greater energy than the natural flow of water utilised by cage systems. At a time when we are all thinking more about the carbon footprints of every aspect of our lives, including the food we eat, it’s important to consider this. It’s worth noting that even if farmed on land, seafood still has a low carbon footprint compared to most other animal protein, and the energy source used by the farm, and whether it is renewable or not, will make a big difference to its impacts. But this is still an impact that RAS farmers need to think about more than other fish farmers.

RAS farms must think about their carbon footprint

New ASC Requirements

While RAS farms still represent a small minority of the aquaculture industry, their use is growing. ASC works hard to reflect the always innovative nature of the industry by adapting its standards and programme to reflect the most recent changes. For this reason, we have recently been working on new requirements that will apply specifically to RAS farms. While many of the impacts will be common to all aquaculture, issues like energy and water use, and effluent disposal, are different for RAS farms, so specific requirements are needed. Farms will need to meet these requirements in addition to the requirements in the relevant species standard –for example, a land-based seriola farm will be audited against the ASC Seriola Standard as well as the new module of RAS requirements.

Like all ASC requirements and updates, these have been developed with our stakeholders’ input and advice, and were open to consultation last year. The feedback we have received has been used to finesse the requirements, which are now being finalised for launch soon.

The requirements are interim rather than permanent. Another recently concluded public consultation is looking at the environmental requirements of a new aligned Farm Standard. This will cover all ASC certified species, and will allow ASC to adapt the programme efficiently to new developments while retaining the robust nature of the ASC standards. The Farm Standard will also integrate specific RAS requirements, so when this goes live it will replace these interim requirements.

In the meantime, ASC will continue to keep an eye out on the latest trends in aquaculture so that farms can be assessed on their individual performance against the most robust standards in the global aquaculture industry.