MARICULTURE SITE-SELECTION STUDY ALONG MAKRAN COAST VIA A SPATIAL MULTI-CRITERIA DECISION MAKING MODEL

Consensually, the rising trend of utilizing mariculture potential around the world is deemed an absolute necessity in the quest by mankind to address crucial food security issues faced by the ever-increasing population of the planet earth, in addition to partaking of the significant economical rewards of this relatively new industry, not only in wealth creation for the sea-bordering states, but also in creating long-term employment to empower the underprivileged in coastal communities. Moreover, re-stocking of endangered marine species is another environmentally beneficial application of mariculture. Consequently, as preliminary studies for the Iranian Fisheries Organization (IFO) by international experts emphasize the fact that in terms of generating revenue, this industry has tremendous prospects, potentially being second only to the petroleum sector, therefore, mariculture has been allocated a vital role as stipulated within the sixth national four-yearly development plan. Accordingly, to ensure an environmentally sustainable yet economically advantageous approach to developing this industry, identifying suitable marine aquaculture sites within the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) of Iran is of paramount importance so as to pin-point suitable locations as well as derive an estimate of the carrying capacities of nearshore marine aquaculture yield which can tremendously boost the national gross domestic product [1].