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Estimating cage farming capacity of data-poor mariculture sectors in the Eastern Mediterranean

ABSTRACT Sea bream and sea bass cage farming is slowly following salmon’s track, namely the transformation of the product into a commodity. Despite this trend, the credibility of production data is still questionable. In the current work, a simple and handy ex-situ tool to estimate the annual production capacity of a fish cage farm is proposed based on cage dimensions. By applying a “rule of thumb” of low, moderate, and high stocking density scenarios (i.e. 5, 5.5, and 6 kg m−3) οn farms located in NW Greece and Albania, and verified by sales data, it was possible to estimate with confidence the real annual production capacity of a farm and of the entire sector. Accordingly, productivity/performance indices related to cage and leased surface area, productivity and employees, were calculated. Overall, the proposed tool (and its derivative indices) could be used to obtain more realistic aquaculture production statistics and to assist managerial decisions on farm level.