Profile
Albert Altena
Biologist and Agricultural Scientist
Albert Altena is a German citizen and lives actually in Bremen. He holds a master degree in biology and agriculture with a strong focus on aquaculture. He has more than 10 years of practical experience in the field of international aquaculture and worked as a farm manager in Germany (Recirculation system "Eel Farm Voldagsen" from 2002 to 2004), Ghana and Malaysia.
From 2007 to 2008 he implemented a Tilapia farm in Malaysia (www.trapia.com.my) with a sustainable and social responsible production of 20,000t of Tilapia p.a. During the implementation he worked closely together with the governmental representants and authorities of Malaysia as well as with the local business partner. Throughout this employment he could also work at one of the world�s biggest Tilapia hatchery in southern China as well as at research institutes and hatcheries in Singapore.
From 2004 to 2007 he worked as a farm manager at "Tropo farms Ltd.", Ghana and has developed and implemented the cage farming at Lake Volta. You can see this cage farm at www.voltacatch.com actually producing more than 12,000t p.a.
Albert Altena has written his master thesis about temperature treatment as an alternative of the hormone treatment of Tilapia in Kenya (Altena & Hörstgen-Schwark 2002).
Because of his broad experiences Albert Altena is very familiar with the production of Tilapia as well as with the living conditions and with the market situation in Africa.
From 2008 to 2011 he worked as free consultant for Naturland (www.naturland.de), the world�s leading organization for certification and consultancy of organic aquaculture. During his time with Naturland Albert Altena was responsible for the world wide supervision of projects and companies dealing with organic fish farming (among other things organic Pangasius production in Vietnam, organic Salmon production in Irleand).
Currently he manages a little consultant company for sustainable and organic aquaculture (www.aquatic-blue.com).
Personal data sheet
2008 - 2011: Consultant International Sustainable Aquacultur, Naturland e.V., Germany
- Responsible for international sustainable fish farming
- Project aquisition
2007 - 2008: Project manager, Genomar AS, Norway / Trapia Malaysia, Sdn. Bhd., Malaysia
- Project management of a 20,000t net cage Tilapia farm
- Project supervision in China, Singapore and Angola
2004 - 2007: Farm manager, Tropo Farms Ltd., Ghana
- Farm management of a 250t Tilapia pond farm
- Build-up of a 2,000t net cage Tilapia farm
2002 - 2004: Operating manager, Eel farm Domäne Voldagsen, Germany
- Management of an intensive recirculation system for the production of 50t eel
2001 - 2002: Scientific assistant, University of Göttingen, Germany
- Breeding and development of temperature-sensitive Tilapia breeds
- Maintenance and monitoring of the institute-based water recirculationg system
1999 - 2002: Studies "International and Tropical Agriculture", University of Göttingen
- Graduation: Master of Science
1991 - 1998: Studies Diplom-Biology, University of Osnabrück
- Graduation: Diplom-Biologist
Scientific publications:
Altena, A. & Hörstgen-Schwark, G. (2002): Effects of rearing temperatures on sex ratios in Tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus L. - Investigations on a local population from the Lake Victoria in Kenya. 184. - In: Challenges to organic farming and sustainable land use in the tropics and subtropics, Book of Abstracts. Kassel; Witzenhausen.
Research visits:
Research visit at the University of Maseno, Kenya
- Development and construction of a water recirculationg system for research and study purposes
- Analysis of the temperature-sensitivity of local Tilapia breeds
Research visit at the rainforest of Guatemala
