Water quality and freshwater fish culture intensification: the Israeli example

Abstract. During the development of freshwater fish culture in Israel there has been a trend toward intensification, which has been accelerated in the last years with the introduction of new culture systems: deep reservoirs, fish cages and mechanically stirred ponds. In the present paper, the main processes affecting water quality variability in outdoor systems with increasing fish culture intensification levels are presented. The analysed systems are semi-intensive shallow ponds with different organic loading, semi-intensive shallow ponds with different fish species combinations, semi-intensive deep reservoirs, and intensive mechanically stirred ponds. The examples are from experiments conducted at the Fish and Aquaculture Research Station Dor and from follow-ups at fish farms.