Fish Farming in the Desert
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How Aquaculture in Water-Scarce Locales Can Tackle Food Insecurity
Picturing a desert typically conjures up images of sand dunes, rocks, blazing sun, and maybe some palm trees or cactus. But one image that probably doesn’t come to mind is flourishing marine life.
Yet in hot, arid southern Israel, tons of fresh fish flow from the desert to the dinner plate.
This kind of aquaculture in freshwater-scarce locales is viewed as a significant solution to food insecurity. For desert regions in particular, the model offers the possibility of transforming arid landscapes into unprecedented hubs of food production.
Fish Farms in the Negev
Israel’s sprawling Negev Desert covers roughly 13,000 square kilometers (5,000 square miles) and features striking rock formations, craters, and canyons.
With temperatures often exceeding 40°C (104°F) in the summer and with some areas receiving less than 100 millimeters (4 inches) of rainfall a year, the Negev Desert is not somewhere you would expect to find any kind of marine life—much less the type found on dinner plates. And yet several species of fish are being bred here on an industrial scale.
Aquaculture in Israeli deserts has been developed since 1979. Today, scientists, entrepreneurs, and industrialists have collaborated to build land-based fish farms in the desert using advanced recirculating aquaculture systems (RASs) that allow precise control over things like water quality, salinity, and temperature.
[The geothermal water] was extracted and used to farm warmwater species, such as barramundi, also known as Asian sea bass.
But where does the water for raising the fish come from, especially considering the amount of water needed? That problem was solved by drilling deep into the Negev bedrock south of the Dead Sea, which found artesian wells of slightly brackish geothermal water. The water, around 37°C (99°F), was extracted and used to farm warmwater species, such as barramundi, also known as Asian sea bass, which thrive in temperatures between 26°C (78.8°F) and 32°C (89.6°F).
By adjusting and stabilizing the geothermal supply, farmers can create ideal growing conditions year-round. These systems are closed-loop, meaning they recycle most of what they use.
Unlike traditional open-water fish cages, where waste flows directly into surrounding seas, RASs can operate with minimal discharge. Small amounts of nutrient-rich excess water can be used to irrigate nearby crops, such as olives or date palms.
Land-Based Aquaculture Progress
Renowned Professor Yonathan Zohar, chair of the Department of Marine Biotechnology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County and an aquaculture leader in the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology, said RASs are benefiting from technological advancements.
“We made a huge amount of progress in the science and technology of land-based RASs that can be located anywhere while having total control of the environmental conditions, such as salinity and temperature,” he said.
The systems allow fish to be grown in freshwater or artificial saltwater, at virtually any salinity or temperature required. “They recycle and reuse their water,” Zohar said, “and, as such, are easy to tailor the farming conditions—cold, warm, fresh, or salt water—to the species of interest to enable optimal performance. Plus, they generate very minimal environmental waste, thus being ecologically responsible.”
He adds that if operated optimally, growth rates can be faster, stocking densities higher, and feed efficiency improved compared with many open-water systems.
The work taking place in the desert is the latest in a long list of achievements for the professor. Over a career spanning more than five decades, he also helped overcome one of the aquaculture industry’s most challenging biological bottlenecks: the inability of many fish species to reproduce in captivity.
In the wild, fish rely on subtle environmental cues—changes in temperature, salinity, day length, and water depth—to trigger spawning. In captivity, those cues are often missing or incomplete.
The professor found that the brain hormone gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) was not being properly released in farmed broodstock. His team developed synthetic versions of the hormone and incorporated them into biodegradable, slow-release implants that successfully induce spawning.
The breakthrough helped transform aquaculture from a system dependent on wild-caught juveniles into one capable of closing the full life cycle in captivity.
Problems and Solutions
But the RAS technology is not without its critics or challenges.
Building a large-scale RAS facility requires significant upfront investment—perhaps $10 million to $20 million for a medium-sized system producing 500 tons of fish per year.
Energy consumption can also be substantial, particularly for pumping, filtration, and temperature control, which has prompted debates about overall energy footprints. Moreover, while water use may be minimal, electricity demand can be high. But the professor says taking certain measures can help offset this aspect. “Renewable energy, such as solar, is integrated, and we convert solid organic waste to bioenergy. These systems have a lower carbon footprint, as they can be built anywhere, near major markets, airports, or highways,” he said.
“Compare this to the high energy needed for floating netpens [cages] with using boats, fuel, etc., for daily operations,” he added.
As food demand continues to rise alongside a growing global population, pressure on marine ecosystems has intensified.
According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, aquaculture now provides more than half of the seafood consumed worldwide.
To help address this, land-based RAS farms are now operating in North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, producing salmon, sea bass, shrimp, and other species. According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, aquaculture now provides more than half of the seafood consumed worldwide.
So, the demand is there—as is the technology to meet the demands as they emerge. “The context is much broader—desert, cold climates, any climate,” said Zohar. “It is already happening.”
Indeed, addressing food-security challenges was one of the main drivers of the professor’s career. “I wanted to work in a field that carries societal benefits, so that we can provide for the growing world population and meet the increasing demand of seafood through aquaculture rather than continuing to overfish and deplete our oceans,” he said.
Looking to the future, Zohar believes land-based aquaculture systems have a sunny future.
“RAS land-based platforms will gradually replace the current dominant practices of floating cages for optimally farming most commercially important fish species in environmentally responsible ways that are water-, energy-, and climate-smart,” he said. "It will take time, but this is the future of environmentally responsible fish farming."
In a region so seemingly harsh, the sight of fish thriving in tanks beneath the desert sun challenges long-held assumptions about where food can be grown. But it may offer a glimpse of how technology and biology together can reshape the future of global food production.
*Mark Smith is a journalist and author from the UK. He has written on subjects ranging from business and technology to world affairs, history, and popular culture for the Guardian, BBC, Telegraph, and magazines in the United States, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
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