UNDERSTANDING THE FULL POTENTIAL OF THE AQUACULTURE INDUSTRY THROUGH RESEARCH

Understanding the full potential of the aquaculture industry through research. With the aquaculture industry being estimated to be worth £1.5 billion[1] in the UK, there is significant potential for development within the industry and opportunities which could benefit other industries in the food supply chain.

Although often seen as siloed industries, the agricultural and aquaculture industries are comparable in many ways. They face similar challenges in terms of maintaining productivity, are both focused on sustainable production and require world-leading science-based solutions and innovative technologies to further propel development and solve challenges.

CIEL (Centre for Innovation Excellence in Livestock) is committed to helping bridge the gap between the agri and aqua food sectors.

Supporting industry-led innovation

To help accelerate innovation, research, and development in aquatic food production, and to understand the full potential of the sector, CIEL has been the driving-force behind an aquaculture seed funding initiative.

Martin Sutcliffe, CIEL’s aquaculture specialist explains that the projects supported through the initiative were selected based on their potential to move the industry forward.

“CIEL works with organisations across the agrifood sector, encouraging knowledge exchange and best practice while tapping into academic expertise,” he says.

“Bringing agrifood and aquaculture sectors together was one of the main goals of this work.

“We’ve supported a variety of projects including one looking specifically at reducing carbon emissions. This involved assessing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from Pangasius (Basa) production in Vietnam, where the majority of aquaculture takes place in open pond systems

Little is known about direct GHG emissions from production ponds, and this research could potentially be replicated in other forms of aquaculture production. There are also synergies and lessons which relate to reducing emissions from livestock manure,” explains Mr Sutcliffe.

He adds that other projects looked at the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of cleaner fish as a sustainable tool for sealice management, with improvements that could have positive impacts on the salmon industry in Scotland.

Mr Sutcliffe says:

“The projects have all worked well so far, and the results are promising.”

“CIEL is delighted to support these projects as it’s not only shown the strength of the aquaculture industry in the UK, but it’s also sparked further ideas for many in the industry as to how agriculture and aquaculture can be brought together to benefit each other.

“Another project which demonstrates this is the seaweed protein biomass cultivation system project which was run by seaweed farmers Seaweed Generation Ltd. Their research has shown how seaweed has significant potential as a feed source for the poultry industry,” says Mr Sutcliffe.

Harnessing the potential of seaweed for animal feed

Seaweed Generation is a start-up, climate tech company which uses robotics to harness the potential of seaweed.

The research supported by CIEL investigated how seaweed can be grown and cultivated to provide feed for egg laying hens. Some species of seaweed have a high protein content which means they have great potential for animal feed and may be particularly suitable for the poultry sector.

Patricia Estridge co-founder and CEO at Seaweed Generation Ltd, explains they were interested in becoming involved with CIEL’s seed funding initiative as a partnership with CIEL presented a variety of opportunities.

“Over and above CIEL’s support through its seed funding, they have provided us with networking opportunities innovation and guidance while carrying out our research, so we’ve been thrilled to work with them and to be part of the wider CIEL membership,” she says.

“We started carrying out the research to understand if seaweed could be grown for poultry feed between November and March, and results have been promising.”

Ms Estridge adds that they tested two types of seaweed, Atlantic Wakame and Dulse on a hydrostatic substrate and built a first prototype of an automated cultivation rig, powered by solar, which was invented by Seaweed Generation Ltd, to cultivate seaweed.

“The substrate design was based on hydrostatic growing lines – sort of like a hose pipe – where the substrate was inflated by pumps, and then the pressure of the water helped to hold tension within the substrate,” she says.

“The research confirmed the substrate could maintain tension and seaweed was able to grow on it and be cultivated, using the power of solar,” explains Ms Estridge.

She adds that they were able to carry out early-stage profiling of the seaweed too, which included nutrition and palatability tests.

“All the seaweed grown had a high protein content when dried, with Dulse having up to 30% protein content,” she explains.

Initial palatability tests which were set to determine which type of seaweed egg laying hens prefer also showed a preference for Dulse.

“Our next steps will be to further investigate palatability preference for different species of seaweed.

“We’re excited to continue working on innovation in this area and hope to continue collaborating with CIEL to further develop and promote the aquaculture industry,” she says.

[1] CIEL Aquaculture Seed Funding for Industry-led Research and Innovation 2022/23 | CIEL | Innovation excellence in livestock (cielivestock.co.uk)