Production systems

Fairouz Abbassi is the hatchery manager at Aquaculture Tunisienne, the largest sea bass and sea bream hatchery in North Africa, with an annual production of up to 30 million juveniles.

On a small, remote atoll in French Polynesia – surrounded by thousands of kilometers of open ocean – Kamoka Pearl is using innovative techniques to farm oysters in harmony with the reef.

Spanning nearly all the continents, the International Biology and Macroalgae Center (IBMC) hopes to use knowledge sharing between key seaweed producers to supercharge this ocean crop and make it a viable commodity on the global market. 

China has an ambitious vision to enhance domestic food security by developing gargantuan offshore farming units and widespread, affordable recirculation systems – can the West learn some valuable lessons?

Mangrove Crab Labs is developing a system that combines crab farming, mangrove restoration and community empowerment in Indonesia.

French startup Agriloops has recently launched its first commercial-scale saline aquaponics facility, in a bid to produce environmentally responsible shrimp and vegetables for the local market. 

Shaurya Agarwal, co-founder of Blue Wave Aquaculture, aims to not only bring quality RAS-produced rainbow trout to discerning Indian consumers, but also provide a model to catalyse a new industry in his homeland.

Scotland’s Firth of Forth Lobster Hatchery is set to start producing native oysters too, following its acquisition by Balanced Horizon - a charity that has given it a new name and a new lease of life. 

Icelandic startup Ration combines artificial intelligence and computer vision to bring greater precision and automation to both ova counting and land-based salmon feeding regimes.

Land-based seaweed cultivation is widely regarded as being too expensive in Europe, but by reducing costs and capitalising on growing demand from food companies Seaweedland’s founder is determined to prove it can be done at scale in The Netherlands. 

Mohamed Elshenawy, project manager at Gulf Union, has dramatically increased the farm’s tilapia output – transforming it into one of the leading aquaculture operations in Saudi Arabia.

Namibia’s Skeleton Coast is an extreme place to make a living, with shellfish growers facing high risks as well as large potential rewards. 

Arapaima have long been touted as a promising genus of fish for farming, but there are still some major research hurdles to be cleared before they can be produced efficiently enough to be economically viable.

Richard Knuckey is convinced that giant grouper is one of the premium finfish species best suited to RAS production in the West – the question now is whether someone is able to make this potential pay. 

Dr Manoj Sharma is not only the pioneer of shrimp farming in Gujarat is but also credited with creating livelihoods for thousands of farmers who had been struggling to grow crops in the state’s salinised land.

Having made a significant breakthrough in the survival rate of their oysters, Ostrea Aquaculture is looking to raise up to €3.7 million to scale up production to 100 million spat a year – both for their own on-growing and to help meet the rising demand from ha…

Aquantic Fish Farm, in Saudi Arabia, combines tilapia production with crop cultivation, while there are also plans to produce rainbow trout in a RAS unit – as Youssef Eltahawy, the farm’s technical manager, explains.

Thomas Miard, founder of Les 4 Marais, believes that working with nature, not against it, is the key to unlocking aquaculture systems that are both productive and regenerative. From coral restoration in Australia, to seahorse breeding on the French coast, his …

Professor Charles C Ngugi, founder of Mwea Aquafish Farm and one of the key players in the evolution of Kenya’s aquaculture sector, remains committed to training up a new generation of farmers, while also providing them with tilapia and catfish fingerlings. 

Mohamed Sameh El-Sayed, who runs Al-Zohour's three tilapia hatcheries in Egypt alongside his father, Engineer Sameh El-Sayed, has faith that the country’s tilapia sector will continue to grow. 

Pure Ocean Algae’s CEO, Michael O’Neill, explains why identifying the right market fit for red seaweed makes a key difference when moving from startup to scale-up. 

Despite past setbacks, Interest from former customers has persuaded Matilda Olstorpe, Sweden’s biofloc shrimp pioneer, to set up a new and bigger farm.