Predicting the Impact of Regional scale events on the Aquaculture Sector (PRIMROSE)

The aquaculture sector of Europe’s Atlantic Arc is negatively impacted by the effects of harmful blooms and microbial pathogens. Some Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) produce natural biotoxins that can accumulate in filter feeding shellfish and subsequently affect human consumers. Others can also kill farmed fish due to toxins, physical damage, or deoxygenation. Microbial pathogens can also accumulate in bivalves, with gastrointestinal health implications for anyone who consumes contaminated shellfish.

Although prevention of these harmful events is (in general) not possible, early warning may allow mitigation measures to be put in place that will safeguard health and business operations. Moreover, future climate driven change of these impacts on aquaculture has not been reliably evaluated.

PRIMOSE will deliver improved forecasts of HABs, microbial risks and climate impacts in Atlantic aquaculture locations from the Shetland Islands in the north to the Canary Islands in the South.

The project will use a combination of technologies that provide increased remote sensing resolution for aquaculture production areas in Ireland, Scotland England, France, Spain and Portugal.

The transnational cooperation within PRIMROSE will allow best practises and methodologies to be shared among the partners, with the development of a common web based gateway for risk assessment in the region including an easily understood “traffic light” risk index for industry.