Marine Finfish Aquaculture Planning Using MCDM and Numerical Modelling Tools to Aide Industry Expansion along the North Borneo West Coast

Abstract Site selection is the foundation of sustainable finfish culture, and in the tropics, there are vast offshore areas where this is needed. This study is the first to identify areas for marine finfish culture along the North Borneo West Coast using outputs from hydrodynamic modeling coupled with GIS and Multiple-Criteria Decision Making Analysis. Site selection criteria included: water depth, current speed, significant wave height, sensitive habitats, reported fishing grounds, government-based exclusion zones, oil & gas consents, and navigation routes. Of an initial 2.55 million ha, 1.05 million ha was eliminated from consideration based on physical characteristics alone. Of the 1.50 million ha identified to satisfy physical and hydrodynamic criteria for surface-oriented farms, a further 0.06 million ha was eliminated due to sensitive habitat and government exclusion zones. The remaining 1.44 million ha was found suitable for surface pen farming and 0.61 million ha for submerged pen farming. Much of this potential area is shared with capture fishery grounds, oil & gas consents, and navigation routes that will require further assessments (e.g. EIAs) to determine specific impacts to those industries. Those areas not in multi-user conflict makes up 0.57 million ha and 0.28 million ha for surface and submerged farms respectively. Highlights Coastal and offshore finfish culture is globally underdeveloped and lacking robust site selection MCDM with numerical modeling is a promising aquaculture site selection tool Our MCDM conducted in discrete phases; did not require criteria ranking Our approach helps to streamline site selection in areas with limited resources.