Other Decision Criteria. In addition to financial factors, the business case may also serve other objectives. An important one is that mussel production may increase in volume, especially in the southern Delta area where mussel seed (needed as inoculum to grow mussels) cannot be harvested from natural mussel beds. Harvesting mussel seeds from natural beds is also not desirable, since it hampers the development of natural mussel beds, that have important nature values because of their high biodiversity. For this reason, the collection of mussel seed from offshore locations would reduce the need for mussel seeds currently harvested from natural beds in the nature conservation area of the Wadden Sea.
Other Decision Criteria. This business case basically explores the financial factors of the business case. The RAS further reduces the environmental footprint of aquaculture fish production as compared to open cage systems, since water exchange with the marine environment is reduced to a minimum, preventing the potential enrichment of the sea with organic matter, and nutrients (nitrogen and phosphorous). Furthermore, an increase of food production from the sea contributes to the general food security and is one of the societal goals as expressed in the EU Blue Growth Strategy9. With respect to this strategy, the business case contributes to the two out of four of the identified priority areas, i.e. 1) improve access to space and water, as provided by the floating of modules being developed within Space@Sea, and 2) exploiting competitive advantages due to high quality, health and environmental standards. By bringing the production facilities offshore, pressure on the coastal ecosystem and its other users will be decreased.
