Sea bass and gilthead sea bream are the two marine fish species which have characterized the development of marine aquaculture in the Mediterranean basin over the last three decades.

Only ten years before, in 1996, world production of sea bass and sea bream amounted to 54 000 tonnes, of which 33 000 tonnes of sea bream and 21 000 tonnes of sea bass. Over time, the expansion of the sea bass and sea bream aquaculture industry increased the supply of farmed fish which caused prices of both species to decline.

Trucks are loaded with sugar cane, which will be used to produce biofuels, in Brazil. Photograph: Paulo Whitaker/Reuters

There is an ongoing debate on biofuels and using farming land to produce these molecules (e.g. bioethanol) instead of food.

Few years ago, I had read something shocking: the land we need to produce the grain that is enough to feed one human for a year is the same with what we need to produce bioethanol for just a ... car tank ! In other words, the amount of land we need to produce biofuels is simply vast and expensive!

[Chromium]

In the water chemistry, a metal of huge importance is Chromium [especially in its form with oxidation number +6 i.e. Cr(VI), that has a very high toxicity].

It has been cited before on this website the misleading science around the toxicity of Cr(VI) and therefore the attempts to establish a limit of Cr(VI) in drinking water.

It is of equal importance though to try to determine:

1. how Cr(III) may be oxidised to Cr(VI) and

2. how plants and food bioaccumulate Cr