Structural and biotechnical analysis of marine net cage fish farming enterprises in Samsun and Sinop provinces

This study was conducted to determine the structural and bio-technical analyses of fish farming enterprises operating in sea cages in the provinces of Samsun and Sinop. A total of 12 enterprises belonging to 6 firms in Samsun province, and 26 enterprises belonging to 9 firms in Sinop province were surveyed using a full enumeration survey method, totaling 38 sea cage enterprises. The survey investigated the structural characteristics, population and education status, production, sales, marketing methods, water, cage, and feed specifications, as well as the effects of the pandemic and mucilage. The average production volume per enterprise was determined to be 110.300m3 for enterprises in Samsun and 231.506m3 for enterprises in Sinop. Enterprises in Samsun operate production in 131 HDPE sea cages with diameters of 20-50m, while enterprises in Sinop operate in 194 HDPE sea cages with diameters of 28-75m. In 2022, enterprises in Samsun produced a total of 5.208 tons of sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), while enterprises in Sinop produced 18.067 tons of rainbow trout. The average capacity utilization rates were 43% for Samsun and 63% for Sinop. The feed conversion ratio (FCR) was determined to be an average of 1.6 for rainbow trout and 1.7 for sea bass in sea cage enterprises in Samsun, and an average of 1.6 for rainbow trout in sea cage enterprises in Sinop. According to the research results, various recommendations have been made to address the problems identified in fish farming in both provinces.