Problemática Ambiental de la Actividad Piscícola en el Estado de Hidalgo, México.

In the last 20 years, aquaculture has undergone an accelerated growth in the world, representing a successful source of income and food. However, many studies have demonstrated that it is not a sustainable activity, due to wastewater discharge to natural water bodies without previous treatment. Hidalgo has a key role in fish farming, being the second place at national level, thus it is necessary to have updated information about aquaculture. The objective is to evaluate the aquaculture at state level in order to estimate the environmental impact. A database of the aquaculture production units registered with the corresponding state secretariats was generated based on the farming intensity and the level of marginalization. A theoretical calculation of the residual production of nitrogen and phosphorus was performed based on the annual production. There are 610 units of aquaculture production for the year 2011, 48 hectares of cultivation area, dedicated to fattening (>95 %), mean density of 6.14 org/m2 and production of 446 tons of fresh product. Results obtained showed that 7% have environmental impact study, 41% have National Register fishing and 22% have concession of water use, but environmental sampling is not performed. Every year 17 t of nitrogen and 6 t of phosphorus are release to the natural water bodies, and this may represent an impact to the body receptors where production is greater than 10 t/year