Economics

Mercedes Wanguemert, one of Europe’s foremost sea cucumber experts, explains her role in the formation of the continent’s fledgling sea cucumber aquaculture sector and why she believes that the echinoderms have huge untapped potential.

A new project led by the University of Cambridge aims to help make mussels into a seafood staple for UK consumers.

The Blue Impact Fund aims to raise up to £75 million to catalyse the growth of truly sustainable aquaculture in the UK – with a focus on projects including the production of seaweed, bivalves and land-based shrimp.

Investors looking to support sustainable marine aquaculture and the blue economy need accurate ocean data to make evidence-based decisions and de-risk their financial offerings – but a lack of reliable data might be curtailing their efforts.

Provision of quality seed, ensuring good production practices, adding value through processing and reducing information gaps are all crucial to make Indonesia’s seaweed sector more competitive, according to a respected seaweed processing entrepreneur.

A side-by-side comparison of conventional and insect-based aquafeed ingredients has found that insect meals and oils come with a larger carbon footprint and require more energy to produce than marine ingredients – but this discrepancy might be short-lived.

Though seaweed operations are diverse – specialising in various species and operating in different economic circumstances – today’s macroalgae practitioners need to stay grounded in science as they work towards their scale and sustainability goals for 2030.

According to Ohad Maiman, founder and CEO of The Kingfish Company, they can indeed – although he warned that sustainability is by no means “a free pass” to profitability.

Despite only representing about 1 percent of global seaweed cultivation volumes, green macroalgae (Chlorophyta) could play a decisive role in the commercial seaweed sector as it expands and diversifies.

Perhaps one of the least aquatic forms of aquaculture involves the farming of crocodiles, alligators and caimans. These animals are referred to as semi-aquatic, and their husbandry is in some ways more similar to livestock production than to fish or shellfish …

New analysis suggests that pond aquaculture could be the tilapia industry’s best way to profitably intensify production – and that, other than for a few notable exceptions, recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) will remain relatively unprofitable in the near…