Determination of feeding strategies in aquaculture farms using a multiple-criteria approach and genetic algorithms

Abstract

Since the 1990s, fishing production has stagnated and aquaculture has experienced an exponential growth thanks to the production on an industrial scale. One of the major challenges facing aquaculture companies is the management of breeding activity affected by biological, technical, environmental and economic factors. In recent years, decision-making has also become increasingly complex due to the need for managers to consider aspects other than economic ones, such as product quality or environmental sustainability. In this context, there is an increasing need for expert systems applied to decision-making processes that maximize economic efficiency of the operational process. One of the production planning decisions more affected by these changes is the feeding strategy. The selection of the feed determines the growth of the fish, but also generates the greatest impact of the activity on the environment and determines the quality of the product. In addition, feed is the main production cost in finfish aquaculture. In order to address all these problems, the present work integrates a multiple-criteria methodology with a genetic algorithm that allows determining the best sequence of feeds to be used throughout the fattening period, depending on multiple optimization objectives. Results show its utility to generate and evaluate different alternatives and fulfill the initial hypothesis, demonstrating that the combination of several feeds at precise times may improve the results obtained by one feed strategies.

Multiple Criteria Decision Making for the Achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: A Systematic Literature Review and a Research Agenda

“…As depicted in Table 15, four studies employed compromise methods, as follows (i) COPRAS [153], (ii) TOPSIS [154,157], (iii) SAW and IFPPSI [154], and (iv) IOWA [161]. The remaining studies applied outranking methods (PROMETHEE and ELECTRE [154,161] and the multi-objective ZOGP [159] For the achievement of SDGs belonging to this category, several applications of MCDM methods reported in 36 studies are presented and discussed here, as follows: SDG 6-"Clean Water and Sanitation" [162][163][164][165][166][167][168], SDG 13-"Climate Action" [169][170][171][172][173][174][175][176][177][178][179][180][181][182], SDG 14-"Life below Water" [183][184][185][186][187][188], and SDG 15-"Life on Land" [189][190][191][192][193][194][195][196][197].…”

“…Regarding MCDM applications to achieve this SDG, a summary of the reviewed papers related to SDG 14 [183][184][185][186][187][188] is presented in Table 18. Most of the reviewed articles concerning SDG 14 focused on culture-based fishery development in several contexts [183,184,186,188].…”

“…To interpret stakeholders' multidimensional perceptions on policy implementation gaps regarding the current status of Chilean small-scale seaweed aquaculture, Henríquez-Antipa and Cárcamo [185] applied the AHP method combined with SWOT analysis. In turn, Luna et al [187] employed AHP integrated with Genetic Algorithm (GA) to determine the best feeding strategies in aquaculture farms in Spain.…”

Interaction Between Dietary Lipid Level and Seasonal Temperature Changes in Gilthead Sea Bream Sparus aurata: Effects on Growth, Fat Deposition, Plasma Biochemistry, Digestive Enzyme Activity, and Gut Bacterial Community

“…Today, feeding strategy optimization related to environmental conditions is extremely necessary to pursue more intensive and more efficient aquaculture production in the Mediterranean basin. Feed production is the greatest cost in the aquaculture sector and can account for up to 60-80% of the overall expenses (Hasan et al, 2007;Luna et al, 2019). Dietary lipid supplementation has been largely developed to reduce feed cost and reduce the need for limited and expensive protein ingredients in many farmed fish species (Leaver et al, 2008;Bell and Koppe, 2010;Bonaldo et al, 2010) including gilthead sea bream (Sparus aurata), which is one of the most important marine finfish species farmed in the Mediterranean area (Guillen, 2019).…”

Time spent in post-feeding activities including feed preference by different weight groups of marron (Cherax cainii, Austin 2002) under laboratory conditions

“…Understanding the cultured species' weight dependent food preference under culture conditions is of vital importance as the efficient feeding can be crucial for profitable aquaculture (Luna et al, 2019); for example, knowing the feed preference of cultured animals at different weight groups may help to enhance their growth rate, improve the feed conversion ratio and reduce the amount of residual feed pellets which may cause significant water quality issues in aquaculture systems (Glencross et al, 2007).…”