Small-Scale Rainbow Trout Cage Farm in the Inland Waters of Turkey is Sustainable in Terms of Carbon Footprint (kg CO2e)

Abstract

As a climate change assessment criterion, carbon footprint CO2 equivalent (CF, CO2e) is used to evaluate the sustainability of aquaculture in terms of its contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. In this study, the three-year CF of rainbow trout production with a cage farming project capacity of 49 tonnes/year was calculated. The average production capacity of the farm for three years was 52.72 %. Total CF expended was the summation of CF expended on feed, general management, transportation, machinery, and equipment. CF expended on the consumed compound diet had the highest contribution to total CF with 73.69 %. The second highest contributor to total CF was general management with a share of 13.08 % and, of this amount, diesel and labor constituted 78.49 and 19.36 % of it, respectively. Total CF expended per kg and 1 000 fish was 1.13 and 292.52 kg CO2e. Mean values for CF expended per kg carcass, per Mcal energy deposited in the carcass, and per gram of protein deposited in carcass were 1.69, 1.48, and 9.43 kg CO2e, respectively. On average, CF expended per Mcal of cultural energy expended during production was 0.35 kg CO2e. The mean of CF of FCRe, defined as total CF of consumed compound diet divided by total liveweight gain was 0.99 kg CO2e. Results showed that aquaculture is a low carbon-emitting sector thus is sustainable and this advantage should be considered when meeting people’s protein demand.