Interactions between chemicals used in aquaculture and environment in terms of sustainable development

Aquaculture that is the farming of aquatic organisms such as fish, crustaceans, molluscs and aquatic plants, is the fastest growing animal production sector in the world. Global production from aquaculture for human consumption amounted to 73 million tonnes and the value of US$ 110 billion in 2009 and comprised almost fifty percent of the world’s fish supply. Aquaculture, thus, plays an important role in global efforts towards eliminating malnutrition and brings significant health benefits by nutritional well-being. It significantly dominates most devoloping countries in terms of contribution to development by increasing gross domestic product, providing employment opportunities and improving incomes. The potentially adverse impacts of aquaculture that is also threat the sustainability when the sector grows unregulated or under poor management, is of considerable current environmental and public interest in the world. Besides eutrophication and genetically modified organisms (GMOs), the main environmental pressure associated with intensive aquaculture is chemicals (antibiotics, hormones, fungicides, pesticides, antifoulants, anaesthetics and disinfectants) used in aquaculture. The intensive systems are often associated with various greater use of different types of antibiotics and chemicals generate very different effects on the environment, mainly on water and sediment quality (nutrient and organic matter loads), natural aquatic communities (toxicity, community structure, biodiversity), and microorganisms (alteration of microbial communities, drug resistant strains). The interactions between humans, antibiotics, bacteria, fish and aquatic environments are poorly understood and recent studies show a significant pollution of surface waters with antibiotics and other chemicals which are potential risk to drinking waters. Moreover, as a vicious circle and often as well, aquaculture is also negatively affected by pollution of water supplies by other human activities (ie: agriculture and industrial activities). The environmental approach to sustainable development can control the use of chemicals to eliminate or reduce any negative effects to an acceptable level. Sustainability requires global action, and therefore an effective solution can be achieved on the basis of environmentallyfriendly management systems towards social-ecological aquaculture to integrate aquaculture, environment and society locally and globally. This paper, consequently, addresses the relevance of the environmental approach to the role of aquaculture in sustainable development. Keywords: Aquaculture, Chemicals, Antibiotics, Environment, Sustainable Developmen