A systematic review on aquaculture wastewater: Pollutants, impacts, and treatment technology

Aquaculture is the major way to solve the global food sacrcity. As the global population increases, the demand for aquaculture increases. Fish feed, drugs and chemicals, and metabolic waste or mortalities of aquatic organisms also increase, eventually resulting in the production of a large amount of aquaculture wastewater. These aquaculture discharges contain a variety of pollutants, such as conventional pollutants, organic compounds, heavy metals, and biological contaminants, inducing occupational hazards and risks, food security, the environment pollution. Proper wastewater treatment technologies are required to remove hazardous pollutants for minimizing their impacts on environmental and human health. Recirculating aquaculture systems, some biological and physicochemical methods have been applied to remove some pollutants from the aquaculture wastewater, but their efficiency in removing pollutants still requires to be further improved for achieving zero-waste discharge and ensuring sustainable aquaculture development. Meanwhile, sound regulation and legislation needs to be established for ensuring the normal operation of aquaculture industries and the standard discharge of wastewater. This review aims to provide comprehensive information of aquaculture wastewater for the researchers and promote the healthy development of aquaculture.