Features

After just over a year as CEO of Aqua-Spark, Lissy Smit reflects on the highs and lows of the fund’s portfolio companies and the wider trends affecting investment in aquaculture innovation.

Despite a challenging year for the majority of the world’s shrimp farmers, Willem van der Pijl notes that a number of positives to have emerged over the last 12 months, which could help to strengthen the sector’s long-term resilience.

Libyan-based Dr Jamila Rizgalla, head of the Department of Aquaculture at the University of Tripoli, talks about her journey into the aquaculture sector and how she is working to progress aquaculture development in her country

Ghana’s tilapia farmers have been promised a share of the $40 million pledged by the government to alleviate the issues caused by the recent flooding in Lake Volta, but some experts argue that a radical overhaul of the country’s aquaculture strategy is what's …

Professor Kevin Fitzsimmons believes that there are plenty of positives to be taken from the last 12 months in aquaculture and has an optimistic outlook for the sector in 2024 – but mention the fisheries and marine ingredients lobbies to him at your peril.

Nitrite is both toxic and inevitably present in all closed aquaculture systems, so it’s essential for farmers to understand where it comes from and how it can be managed.

After gaining her master’s in aquaculture in Gran Canaria, Nourhan Ali has gained an impressive range of farming experience in Egypt and is now a consultant for the Saudi Aquaculture Society.

Next generation sequencing technologies and metagenomics are proving their worth among early aquaculture adopters – in particular RAS operators – according to Matthew Pope, founder and managing director of Esox Biologics.

Living Seas Aquafeeds is using local ingredients, including farmed seaweed and mangrove leaves, as a functional addition to standard feeding regimes, improving water quality, FCRs and shrimp growth, according to Timothy Hromatka, founder of the Indonesian star…

Pierrot Kokou Akakpovi, CEO of Togo’s largest organic tilapia farm, has ambitions – both for himself and the country’s aquaculture sector in general – to grow substantially in the coming years.

Lake View Fisheries, which is situated on Mfangano Island in Lake Victoria, is ramping up its production and distribution of tilapia to diverse regions across Kenya, despite the unique challenges posed by its remote location.

With the aquaculture sector outperforming land-based protein producers on ESG risks – as reported in the recent Coller FAIRR Protein Producer Index – fishmeal and fish oil use in aquafeeds continue to play a critical role in contributing to sustainable protein…

A new range of tools developed by some of the leading players in Vietnam’s shrimp sector is showing great promise for early adopters, including Minh Phu.

Kal Bahadur Gurung, 40, ditched his taxi business in the Indian state of Sikkim in favour of rainbow trout farming and now earns around $30,000 per year.

After more than a decade of raising eels, Sara Rademaker, the founder of American Unagi, sees New England’s eel farming sector as having a much greater chance of acceptance – and success – than many of the high profile plans for land-based farms that are curre…

GreenWave – a non-profit co-founded by Bren Smith in 2014 – recently launched a new app called Seaweed Source to facilitate forward contracts and build value chain relationships between growers and buyers in the North American seaweed sector.

A rash of lawsuits against retailers who make contentious claims about the sustainability of their products, including farmed seafood, suggests that both the retailers themselves, and the third party certification providers, need to do more to ensure their cla…

China’s shift towards an increasingly Western pattern of seafood production and consumption – one that relies on imports from countries with greater natural capital per capita – appears to be gaining momentum.

Despite its isolated desert location, Naqua – which produces shrimp and barramundi in Saudi Arabia – is in the process of securing sufficient funding to more that double its output to 250,000 tonnes of seafood each year by 2030.

An Egyptian team has succeeded in developing a smart device to estimate the feed intake required for each tank on a fish farm, helping improve productivity and water quality.

Although monodon production is now dwarfed by vannamei farming, the species is tipped to make a comeback, with many Asian farmers realising that it could be a lucrative low density alternative to intensive vannamei production.

In the space of three years, a run-down fish market in Whitby’s iconic harbour has been transformed into a thriving lobster hatchery, which aims to support the local fishery as well as attract and educate visitors to this iconic Yorkshire fishing town.

As an advocate of seaweed aquaculture, biologist Patricia Bianchi promotes sustainable food production all over the world with the aim to improve livelihoods and minimise environmental impacts through her role in the ASC-MSC seaweed programme.

The Ocean 14 Capital fund is approaching the €200 million mark, making it “the largest impact fund in the blue economy”, according to co-founders Chris Gorell Barnes and Francisco Saraiva Gomes, and has recently closed six investments, three of which are not y…

Seawater Cubes have developed a unique RAS designed to produce nearly 8 tonnes of fish from units made from four shipping containers and has recently moved from the pilot to commercial phase.

Prem Kumar Rai, 45, from Sikkim state, northeast India, earns 15 lakhs rupees ($18,333) annually by farming rainbow trout and has won several accolades from the state government.

The introduction of the Science-based Equitable Aquaculture Food (SEAfood) Act, is an unmissable opportunity for the US to step up offshore aquaculture production and ensure the country takes a more responsible stance on seafood security.

Although Venezuela has the unfortunate distinction of being one of the hardest countries in the world to do business in, Grupo Lamar is on course to reach 100,000 tonnes of shrimp production next year, offering a ray of economic hope for the struggling nation.…

Blue Pond Group has developed a range of seaweed-based feed supplements that reduce the prevalence of EHP, WFS and EMS in shrimp farming, according to Mauricio Castillo, its CEO and founder.

Quality nutrition is of critical importance during the first 1,000 days of life. Research to reveal the current contribution of fish and seafood to early childhood nutrition and the identification key barriers and potential resolutions for improved consumption…

The effective development of farmed kelp processing could not only replace conventional plastic packing in a range of applications, but also uplift the lives of women around the world, according to Fionnuala Quin, founder and CEO Kelpy.

DBug, a UK-based startup, is working to convert low value soy and rapeseed byproducts into high value mealworm protein for use in the aquafeed, neonate and pet food markets.

Ahmed Al Sharaki is one of the pioneers of aquaculture in Egypt, who has worked in the public and private sectors in mono-sex tilapia culture for four decades. He currently runs the two Almadinah hatcheries.

Ita Sualia has a diverse and impactful career in Indonesian aquaculture. She is currently the chief operating officer at the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), overseeing projects that support small and medium-sized aquaculture busines…

Symbrosia* is a Hawaii-based startup that’s producing seaweed-based feed additives derived from Asparagopsis seaweed to reduce methane emissions from livestock eructation.

Operators of many of the sector’s largest recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) have had well-documented struggles to break even. However, Thorsten Vammen claims that the first farm established by Frea Solutions – the Danish trout farming company that he man…

Bangladesh has experienced a significant surge in fish production over the last 12 years, primarily driven by the farming of pangasius, tilapia and Gangetic koi (Anabas cobojius).

After overcoming some early setbacks, Nawa Consollata Muyangana’s decision to diversify into farming tilapia has seen her make waves in Zambia’s aquaculture scene and she now has ambitions to ramp up production to 20,000 tonnes a year.

Ecuador’s meteoric growth in shrimp production shows no sign of slowing down – despite the decline in global shrimp prices – according to one of the sector’s leading analysts.

Viable Gear founder Katie Weiler is in the early stages of making equipment for the aquaculture industry using a seaweed polymer to reduce the amount of petroleum-based plastics entering our oceans from the sector.