UK-based design, engineering and risk management consultancy BMT Group has been hired by the environment agency of Abu Dhabi’s government to determine the environmental capacity of three new aquaculture sites off the coast of Dalma Island in the Persian Gulf.
BMT will assess the potential impacts of sea cage operations in each of the three proposed sites, as well as possible volumes.
The company “offered clear advantages over its competitors based on the quality of their products and service. Their excellent track record in Australia, arguably one of the toughest regulatory environments in the world, was also very attractive to the [Environment Agency—Abu Dhabi] team”, said Mohamed Hasan Ali Al Marzooqi, of the Abu Dhabi government, in a press release.
“Proposed aquaculture developments such as these, however important to food security, must be undertaken using the best possible tools for predicting both the instantaneous and cumulative effects of aquaculture, to provide the EAD with confidence that the impacts are negligible, or if not small and entirely manageable,” said Glenn Shiell, marine scientist at BMT Oceanica.
