Aquaculture in the Alboran Sea

Aquaculture in the Alboran Sea began 40 years ago, but in spite of several projects to culture fish and shellfish have been developed, only a few companies are now running. The main cultured species have been sea bass, sea bream, and mussels, but attempts to culture Atlantic bluefin tuna, amberjack, sole, oyster, clams, scallop, shrimp, octopus, sea cucumber, microalgae, and seaweed have also been carried out. This chapter describes the past and current situation of aquaculture in the Alboran Sea, and a brief description of the experiences carried out in Spain and Morocco is shown. During these years several companies have started to run, but most of them terminated their operations after some years. In Spain, fish aquaculture moved to warmer waters in easter coasts, and some problems dealing with facilities design, profitability of activity, and several episodes of biotoxins have limited the development of mollusks aquaculture. In the south area, Morocco and Algeria’s aquaculture is in an early stage, and it is still underdeveloped. The domestic market is limited, and sometimes the companies have focused on the European market, and it is difficult to compete with well-established companies, mainly when the profit margin is low. Future prospects of aquaculture in the Alboran Sea, with special mention to new species, are also discussed.