Aquaculture for all

Cadman Capital invests in Urchinomics

Restorative aquaculture Blue carbon Seaweed / Macroalgae +12 more

Cadman Capital Group, the family office and alternative asset investment firm, today announced that it has taken a strategic equity stake in Urchinomics, the pioneering aquaculture venture that turns ecologically destructive sea urchins into high valued seafood, which in turn helps restore and establish the world’s dwindling kelp forests.

two divers with a net of sea urchins
Urchinomics collects destructive sea urchins and then fattens them up in land-based aquaculture faculties

By doing so they help protect the kelp forests that the urchins are destroying and also generate valuable seafood © Urchinomics

It was announced in December that Urchinomics had secured the world’s first kelp restoration blue carbon credit, issued after a successful research project in Kunisaki and Nagato, Japan.

Cadman Capital are owners of the largest licensed urchin aquaculture facility in Canada, Quoddy Savour Seafoods, which ran a pilot study for urchin ranching with Urchinomics in 2022. Cadman’s involvement will allow Urchinomics to progress ranching for the North American market, and will allow kelp restoration to start across the Bay of Fundy and the east coast.

The group is an established investor and operator in restorative aquaculture, with over 20 years’ experience in the development of ground-breaking processes within on-land lobster and oyster farming. Its involvement will allow Urchinomics to accelerate its growth plans across its operations in North America, Japan and Europe.

“Urchinomics is a tremendously exciting business. They share our passion to develop nature based solutions to tackle the fight against climate change and help heal our ocean’s. We have long recognised that solutions need to focus on the holistic restoration and the sustainable improvement of marine ecosystems, allowing the creation of stronger biodiversity that helps the planet. Urchinomics’ core model of restorative aquaculture is synergistic to our current operations, particularly within lobster production, and we look forward to supporting Brian [Takeda, CEO and founder of Urchinomics] and the team to accelerate their operations globally,” said Giles Cadman, ecopreneur and founder of Cadman Capital Group, in a press release.

“Cadman Capital Group’s involvement in Urchinomics is a milestone moment for us. It recognises the intrinsic value we have already created, and evidences the strength of our philosophy of harnessing the power of the natural world to help reverse some of the negative ecological and economic impacts we are seeing today. Their scientific and operational experience in restorative aquaculture means we can now move forward with an aligned mission to improve ocean health. It signifies the start of the next stage of our growth plans and to further our efforts in developing systems that can truly make a difference to the future of our planet,” added Takeda.

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