Namibia Workshop SANUMARC Univeristy of Namibia, Hentiesbay 3 - 5 June 2010

Presenter Biographies

THE NAMIBIAN MARICULTURE INDUSTRY

With the most of Namibia’s marine fisheries being fully exploited, growth in the country’s fisheries & aquaculture sector has been assigned to aquaculture by the Namibian Government.

Aquaculture is regarded by the Namibian government as strategically important industry, and a concerted effort has been made to develop it in recent years.

• The marine aquaculture (mariculture) industry extends back to 1984, when mussels were cultured in Luderitz, followed by oyster farming in the Swakopmund and Walvis Bay salt pans.
• Offshore oyster farming was initiated in Luderitz in 1992 and in Walvis Bay in 2003.
• The development of a delimited 1,05 ha Aqua-park in Walvis Bay ignited interest in fish farming, and by 2006 an estimated 670 tons of shellfish were produced from about 11 companies.

Mariculture looked set to boom in Namibia, but the capricious upwelling system which causes the nutrient-rich, productive water conditions along the coast also results in algal blooms and sporadic hydrogen sulphide out-gassing events and concomitant anoxic water conditions. A series of these events caused the loss of almost 85% of shellfish production in 2008, and some of the mariculture businesses collapsed. Those companies that persevered and rebuilt their operations have been hit by similar conditions in 2010, with production losses estimated to be as high as 90%.

The survival of the mariculture industry in Namibia is currently under severe threat, and perhaps it is time to look to other mariculture opportunities such as the farming of marine micro-algae for the biofuel oil and other markets.

Presented by:

Dr Lawrence Oellermann has been involved in the southern African aquaculture industry since 1983.

He studied the genetic characteristics of southern African freshwater fishes and initiated the genetic taxonomy laboratory at the South African Institute of Aquatic Biodiversity, receiving a MSc. in Ichthyology from Rhodes University in 1989.

He accepted a position as warm-water aquaculture research officer and part-time lecturer in aquaculture management at Rhodes University’s Department of Ichthyology & Fisheries Science in 1990.

He obtained his PhD in aquaculture in 1995, on the aquaculture potential of hybridized African clariid catfish, farmed in ultra-intensive, recirculating systems. He then moved into mariculture, designing, constructing and managing Rhodes University’s marine ornamental fish hatchery for five years.

He became a full-time aquaculture consultant in 1999, and has been involved in a number of local and international aquaculture initiatives to date. He was also closely involved in the allocation of medium term fishing rights in the South African Marine Capture Fisheries, developing a comprehensive database of the fishing industry for the Department of Environmental Affairs & Tourism. Whilst setting up and managing the Cape Town branch of Enviro-Fish Africa (Pty) Ltd, he managed and participated in a number of Benguela Current Large Marine Ecosystem projects, and carried out an in-depth analysis of the form & structure of the Angolan, Namibian and South African fishing industries in 2005.

He moved to Namibia in May 2006, to take up the position of Commonwealth Mariculture Advisor at SANUMARC. He is also Acting Director of SANUMARC, and is very involved with the mariculture community in Namibia, as Vice Chairman of the Namibian Mariculture Association, board member of the Confederation of Namibian Fishing Associations, and aquaculture advisor to the Namibian Trade Forum (Subcommittee: Fisheries & Aquaculture).