Agriculture/Aquaculture 2.0 is less than a month away, and the response has been astounding.  Already, we have over 200 confirmed attendees and each one represents an opportunity to connect with someone who will impact the future of sustainable agriculture in a big way.

There is good reason firms like Kleiner Perkins, Khosla, Black River, Foundation Capital, Venrock, Mohr Davidow, RockPort, RedPoint, Flagship and Slow Money are sending delegates:  because agriculture is the next cleantech.  Industry professionals from  companies as varied as Dow Chemical, the USDA and Food Alliance will be there for the same reason: this one-day event is where the conversations about sustainable agriculture investment will take place. Read the rest of this entry »

Seeley’s Cove Research Centre introduces the AquaCannon Aeration System; an innovative concept in oxygen transfer and delivery that permits large volumes of water to be enriched with one pass through the unit, (25,000 GPM actual) with a proven minimum gain of 2.5mg/l over an area of 27 acre ft within 15 minutes and maintains it during digestion. Site dependent — a gain of 3mg/l + can be maintained. This unit features an inventive underwater cannon that shoots an oxygen-enriched water mixture to typical depths of 15m and distances of 100 to 200m, once the primary and entrained flows are considered. Read the rest of this entry »

A Guide to Recirculation Aquaculture, a new publication from the Eurofish Factory Guides series, is now available. The guide is an introduction to the new environmentally friendly and highly productive closed fish farming systems. Key topics covered are: components of a recirculation system, fish species in recirculation, project planning and implementation, running the system, waste water treatment, fish disease and case story examples. Read the rest of this entry »

Giant Prawn 2011 (GP2011) is a component of Asian Pacific Aquaculture 2011 (APA2011), which will be held in Kochi, Kerala, India. GP2011 will be a landmark opportunity to review the status of freshwater prawn farming worldwide and discuss the future of this $2 billion/year industry. The dates of GP2011 are 17-20 January 2011. In addition, field trips to freshwater prawn farming sites are being planned for 21 and 22 January 2011. Read the rest of this entry »

Cryogenetics AS of Norway has collaborated with TRI-GEN Fish Improvement Ltd. of Agassiz, BC, Canada to establish an innovative cryopreservation protocol for Coho salmon milt. During a two-step trial experiment in the fall of 2009, milt from 25 males was cryopreserved using the Cryogenetics method and compared to existing/public methods. A total of 20,000 eggs where fertilized and incubated to provide significant numbers for the tests. The Cryogenetics method provided a 94% average success rate, which is by far the best known results obtained by using cryopreserved Coho milt to fertilize eggs. Read the rest of this entry »

The Norwegian company Cryogenetics AS has made a significant breakthrough by inventing a method for cryopreservation of fish embryos down to -130° C (-202° F). This is a major achievement as the world’s scientific community has pursued a method for cryopreservation of fish embryos over several decades without success.

The Cryogenetics AS scientific team, lead by Dr. Elisabeth Kommisrud, has over the past two years systematically approached the task of establishing protocols for cryopreservation of fish embryos. An Atlantic cod embryo was cryopreserved, thawed and developed normally before hatching. The fish was named «Coddy». Trials were repeated, optimized and patent applications were filed to protect the invention. Read the rest of this entry »

The December 2009 issue of EUROFISH Magazine marks the launch of a new e-magazine that will allow readers to access information via computer, mobile phone, or personal digital assistant. The new electronic distribution model will increase the range and depth of penetration by up to 15 000 readers per issue, as well as create an online archive to benefit advertisers, subscribers and partners, as well as casual readers.

This move acknowledges the Internet as the preferred medium for delivery and receipt of news and information. It also represents our intention to use the power and the flexibility offered by the Internet to improve our services for our subscribers, advertisers, and readers. Read the rest of this entry »

Norwegian Lobster Farm (NLF), a Stavanger-based company with headquarters in Kvitsøy, has developed the technology and methodology to produce juvenile and market-sized lobsters in land-based farms using a patented process. As a result, NLF is now a leader in the development of land-based lobster farming, both in Norway and the world.

NLF’s unique technology, based on the recirculation of heated seawater (ca. 20 degrees C), enables full utilization of the water volume in 3 dimensions and facilitates the tracking of individuals throughout the entire production cycle. Being land based, it avoids problems such as escapes, pollution, and negative impacts on and from the environment. The company produces high-quality lobster using environmentally friendly farming methods focused on animal welfare and health from egg to harvest. Read the rest of this entry »

Aquaculture sites are vulnerable to oil spills, and the most vulnerable are coastal ocean sites where waves and currents quickly disrupt clean-up attempts.

Extreme Spill Technology (EST) is developing specialized vessels and proprietary equipment designed to recover oil spilled in all waters, with particular focus on extremely difficult challenges like rough seas and waters choked with heavy ice such as the Arctic Ocean, Northwest Passage, Gulf of St. Lawrence, and Labrador Sea. EST is currently working with strategic partners in Canada, Norway and China. Read the rest of this entry »

Aquaculture without Frontiers (AwF) today launched its online appeal to solicit donations from the global aquaculture industry and interested public to support its objective of alleviating poverty by improving livelihoods in developing countries. AwF has created an online secure donor page at its website where companies and individuals can make donations using their credit card.

“We are asking members of the aquaculture community to host our ‘Donate Now’ logo link on their corporate websites to help us promote our appeal and reach as many potential donors as possible,” said AwF Founder, Michael New, OBE.

Read the rest of this entry »

AgriMarine Holdings Inc. announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (the “Memorandum”) with the People’s Government of Siping City and Tiedong District, Jilin Province, China (“Siping”), for the development of salmon rearing operations and associated feed supply and processing industries utilizing AgriMarine’s solid wall closed containment technology and operations expertise.

Under the terms of the Memorandum, AgriMarine will investigate potential site locations in flood control and power reservoirs in the District of Tiedong for the purpose of developing closed containment salmon rearing operations and infrastructure facilities including feed mills and processing plants in the City of Siping. AgriMarine will conduct environmental suitability studies and develop a business planning report. Read the rest of this entry »

The economically important, environmentally sensitive Atlantic salmon species will have its genome fully sequenced, thanks to an international collaboration involving researchers, funding agencies and industry from Canada, Chile and Norway.

Genome BC is partnering with the Chilean Economic Development Agency, InnovaChile, Norwegian Research Council, Norwegian Fishery and Aquaculture Industry Research Fund to form the International Cooperation to Sequence the Atlantic Salmon Genome (Cooperation). Read the rest of this entry »

The oceans could become the source of more of humanity’s food if steps are taken to expand and improve marine aquaculture, according to a study published in the December 2009 issue of BioScience.

As the world’s population continues to grow, lack of fresh water and space mean that terrestrial agriculture is unlikely to be able to meet food demand, according to Carlos M. Duarte of the University of the Balearic Islands, Spain, and his seven coauthors. Freshwater aquaculture, which is largely confined to the tropics, is expanding, but its reliance on fresh water may limit long-term growth. Fisheries catches have been declining globally for two decades, and although conservation measures and a shift in consumption patterns could allow some recovery, marine aquaculture holds more potential for sustained growth. Read the rest of this entry »

Location: New York City or San Francisco

NewSeed Advisors is seeking an intern to help plan the upcoming Aquaculture 2.0 conference, the first investor conference for sustainable aquaculture. The conference will be held in Palo Alto, California in March 2010.

The intern will work a flexible 15-20 hours per week and can be located in our offices in NYC or work remotely from the San Francisco area. The work will be a combination of research and administrative, and will help the intern to become familiar with many aspects of fish farming. This internship is unpaid but can qualify for school credit. To apply, please send a brief cover letter and resume to bailey (at) newseedadvisors.com.

Agriculture 2.0™ is the pre-eminent gathering for the entrepreneurs, investors, farmers, and experts working to catalyze -and capitalize on- the transition to a more sustainable agricultural and food system.

Agriculture 2.0 will bring together hundreds of entrepreneurs, investors, farmers, industry experts, and journalists, all united by the common goal of driving the growth of sustainable agriculture and healthful food systems.

Aquaculture 2.0

A special Aquaculture track, sponsored by Aquacopia, will highlight investment opportunities and the future of fish farming. Read the rest of this entry »

AquaOptima AS, based in Trondheim, Norway, has suffered like everyone else from the global financial crisis. In November 2008, several contract negotiations were stopped and some contracts were cancelled.

Recently, however, the situation has begun to change and the company is now negotiating with potential clients in several countries who wish to utilize AquaOptima’s unique recirculation aquaculture technology. For example, a contract worth NOK 40 million (USD 7.1 million) to supply a RAS eel farm to Portugal was signed in August. The farm is located about 150 km north of Lisbon and the client, FindFresh S.A., is a consortium of Portuguese and Spanish companies involved in the catch and sale of wild eels.  Read the rest of this entry »

Norwegian energy company StatoilHydro has invested $3 million (€2 million) in the Chesapeake Algae Project (ChAP) in Virginia, US.

The College of William and Mary and its Virginia Institute of Marine Science have formed the collaborative research initiative to investigate a promising new technology to produce biofuel from the algae growing naturally in rivers and the Chesapeake Bay. Read the rest of this entry »

A new paper published October 27 in PLoS ONE, the online, open-access scientific journal, unveils for the first time a method to accurately distinguish between all eight tuna species from any kind of processed tissue using genetic sequencing.

We at ACG assume that this new development will be useful in identifying tuna from farmed origins and thus promote a more responsibly and sustainably produced tuna.

Tunas are among the most economically valuable and yet the most endangered commercially exploited fish in the world. Read the rest of this entry »

OxyVision (OV) is a Norwegian R&D company focused on serving the aquaculture and the water treatment industries. Their main objective is to develop technology that improves productivity. The company’s goal is to have its technology become an integral part of standard operations in farming oxygen-sensitive fish species and at water treatment plants.

Aquaculture is a young industry that is rapidly changing, growing, and expanding to all parts of parts of the world and technological developments create profitable markets for companies able to meet the industry’s growing demands. Within the intensive aquaculture sector, lack of oxygen is probably the most important limiting factor for efficient production. Thus, oxygen injection has been routine in hatcheries and smolt farms for many years. Read the rest of this entry »

We received this announcement and would like to share it with the aquaculture community because we believe it fills a need for people looking for capital to grow their business. The last conference, held in September 2009, had some aquaculture presentations so we encourage you to consider attending this event in March 2010.

From the press release:

Agriculture 2.0 is the pre-eminent gathering for the entrepreneurs, investors, food producers, and experts working to catalyze -and capitalize on- the transition to a more sustainable agricultural and food system. After an extremely successful inaugural conference in New York City last month, we are delighted to invite you to the next Agriculture 2.0 conference. Read the rest of this entry »

Following our successful Aqua Nor 2009 tour, we (ACG) are offering a number of aquaculture facility site visits and business-to-business (B2B) meetings in conjunction with Aqua Sur 2010, which will take place in Puerto Montt, Chile, on March 24-27, 2010.
 
In collaboration with our industry contacts in Chile, we are in the early stages of putting our tour itinerary together, and despite the current challenges in Chile’s aquaculture industry, there has never been a better time for supply and service providers to prospect for business opportunities in Chile. Read the rest of this entry »

Sea Lice 2010, the 8th International Sea Lice Conference, will be held May 9-12, 2010 in Victoria, BC, Canada.

All researchers and those working with sea lice are invited to submit an abstract for oral or poster presentation.  Sea Lice 2010 is dedicated to maintaining objectivity, having a focus on scientific issues, striving for a consensus view on the status of current sea lice research, and providing recommendations on future research. Submitted abstracts will undergo rigid peer review by a Scientific Review Committee prior to acceptance for the program.  Abstract submission deadline – January 8, 2010. Read the rest of this entry »

Nofima will establish a Centre of Excellence for capture-based aquaculture in Tromsø, Norway.

Capture-based aquaculture, which involves catching fish and transfering them live to sea cages, offers a host of advantages. The fish can be fed and slaughtered when demand dictates, thereby avoiding major seasonal supply variations to customers, as well as increasing the value of the fish. Read the rest of this entry »

Researchers at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, have trained fish to respond to sound.

Just as 19th Century scientist Ivan Pavlov conditioned dogs to associate the sound of a bell with the prospect of food, these black sea bass associate a 280Hz tone emitted from an underwater speaker with food, and respond by gathering in a partitioned “feeding zone”.

Scientific aquaculture programme director Scott Lindell, who is running these experiments, believes that “acoustic ranching” could benefit fish farming.

Read more:  How do you train a fish and Pavlov’s fish

As a part of the XVIIth CIGR World Congress that will be held on June 13-17, 2010, in Quebec City, Canada, CIGR Section II (Farm Buildings, Equipment, Structures and Livestock Environment) is planning technical sessions on the theme of “Aquaculture”. The sessions are aimed at bringing together engineers and scientists to discuss latest achievements and research opportunities. The sessions will focus on onshore aquaculture and precision aqua farming. For full details please visit http://www.bioeng.ca/cigr2010/  Deadline: 20 November 2009

Wild salmon and farmed salmon can now be distinguished from each other by a technique that examines the chemistry of their scales.

Dr Clive Trueman, who is based at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton said:

“Salmon farming is a big, intensive business. In 2006, around 130,000 tonnes of salmon were farmed in Scotland for the table. Wild populations of Atlantic salmon are in serious decline across their whole range and the total wild population returning to Scottish rivers in the same year is estimated at less than 5000 tonnes. Wild fish are rare and expensive so there is a strong incentive for fraudulent labelling. Farmed fish also escape into rivers, harming the wild population. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to distinguish between farmed and wild fish” Read the rest of this entry »

A popular web portal featuring aquaculture resources, the Aquaculture Network Information Center or ‘AquaNIC’, recently launched an updated and redesigned site. AquaNIC is funded through the NOAA Sea Grant College Program with support from USDA’s North Central Regional Aquaculture Center. First launched in 1994, AquaNIC is run by the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, Auburn University’s Department of Fisheries and Allied Aquaculture, and the Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant College Program.

Today, October 1, 2009, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s agency formerly known as the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) became the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). All authorities administered by CSREES have been transferred to the new institute, which will be led by Dr. Roger N. Beachy. NIFA’s mission is to stimulate and fund the research and technological innovations that will enhance and make U.S. agriculture more productive and environmentally sustainable while ensuring the economic viability of agriculture and production. NIFA was created under the 2008 Farm Bill to strengthen agriculture research (including aquaculture) and to attract additional highly competitive research scientists to related fields. A growing program in competitive research grants will be a hallmark of the new agency.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Aquaculture Program has released a new report, “Overcoming Technical Barriers to the Sustainable Development of Competitive Marine Aquaculture in the United States”. The 120-page report is based on the discussions and outcomes of a meeting sponsored by NOAA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in February 2008. Edited by Craig Browdy and John Hargreaves, the report identifies aquaculture technology research needs in the United States with a focus on overcoming technical barriers for environmentally and economically sustainable marine aquaculture. The four technologies addressed in the report are:

• Land-based production of marine shrimp;
• Land-based production of marine finfish;
• Coastal shellfish production; and
• Cage production of marine finfish.

Click here to view or download the 120-page report.

For more information, or to obtain a hard copy, send an e-mail with your street address to Kate.Naughten@noaa.gov.

Paul Dobbins and Tollef Olson of Ocean Approved, a startup aquaculture company in Portland, Maine, have obtained an experimental lease to install a specially designed kelp-growing rig on the ocean floor off of Little Chebeague Island in Casco Bay. The lease is the first granted for the cultivation of seaweed in Maine and the first in all of the United States, say the pair of aquapreneurs.

According to Paul Dobbins, kelp aquaculture is a $7 billion a year industry worldwide, with twenty-eight countries now cultivating it, but not the United States. Strange, given that this aquaculture product is a net benefit to the environment. With zero discharge, no need for any fertilizer, and highly nutritious, Dobins and Olsen see tremendous opportunity for growing vegetables that don’t require freshwater, fertilizer or any arable land. Read the rest of this entry »

A recent press release by the BC Salmon Farmers Association adds further perspective to the debate around the issues arising out of the publication of the paper “Feeding aquaculture in an era of finite resources” by R.L. Naylor et al. in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on 8 September 2009. We post it below for our readers.

We’re eating more fish every day. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization predicts that by 2030, globally consumption of fish will grow by 70%. The increasing reliance on aquaculture to fill this growing demand is supported by a recent study in the ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Science’ which states that one-half of all seafood consumed is now cultured. Read the rest of this entry »

Norwegian Minister of Fisheries and Coastal Affairs, Helga Pedersen, and State Secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry, Rikke Lind,  presented the government’s national strategy for marine bioprospecting on Friday, 11 September, in Tromsø.

“Norway has a long tradition of harvesting the sea and has developed a high level of competence in the marine sector and bioprospecting. Through this new strategy, we are facilitating an exploitation of our marine resources that can provide us with new knowledge and new jobs from the treasure chest of the sea,” said Minister Pedersen. Read the rest of this entry »

Increasing demand for fish feed is not depleting fish stocks, stated the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED) against a recent claim that the fish feed industry is harming marine ecosystems. (Please see our previous post on 10 Sep).

In a piece published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Stanford University professor Rosamond Naylor claimed that growing demand for fish oil and fishmeal is ravaging fish stocks due to companies harvesting marine resources unsustainably.

More stringent regulations are needed to both reduce the use of fish oil in aquaculture practices and foment sustainable production of the prized product, she said.

GOED Executive Director Adam Ismail condemned the assumption that fish oil-in-feed is unsustainably harvested. He said amounts of fish oil use in feed are not increasing significantly.

For the full article, please click here.

Aquaculture now accounts for 50 percent of the fish consumed globally, according to a new report by an international team of researchers published this week in the Sept. 7 online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(PNAS).

“Aquaculture is set to reach a landmark in 2009, supplying half of the total fish and shellfish for human consumption,” the authors wrote. Between 1995 and 2007, global production of farmed fish nearly tripled in volume, in part because of rising consumer demand for long-chain omega-3 fatty acids. Oily fish, such as salmon, are a major source of these omega-3s, which are effective in reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease, according to the National Institutes of Health. Read the rest of this entry »

Woodhead Publishing Ltd has just released a new book, ”New technologies in aquaculture: Improving production efficiency, quality and environmental management” that may be of interest to our readers. It is edited by Gavin Burnell, University College Cork, Ireland and Geoff Allan, NSW Department of Primary Industries, Australia.

From the publisher’s webpage announcing the new book is the following:

The book:

• reviews recent advances in improvements in aquaculture production
• focuses on the genetic improvement and reproduction of farmed species,including genome-based technologies
• discusses key health issues, including advances in disease diagnosis, vaccine development and other emerging methods to control pathogens in aquaculture
• examines the design of a range of aquaculture production systems and addresses key environmental issues
• is a standard reference for aquaculture professionals and academics in the field

Read the rest of this entry »

Dave Conley, ACG senior consultant and founding partner, has been invited to give a presentation on aquaculture and food security at the McGill Conference on Global Food Security in Montreal, Canada on October 5th, 2009.

Hosted by McGill University’s Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, the conference will examine the impact of the current economic crisis on the world’s hungry. Read the rest of this entry »

We are back from Trondheim, Norway, and are busy compiling our notes and photos from this year’s edition of Aqua Nor. The weather cooperated most days, providing visitors with a little rain but mostly sunshine and clear skys. Of course, our interest was focused on all the latest developments in aquaculture science and technology (S&T), and there was lots of it! I think we will have enough material to populate this blog for weeks and months to come. Read the rest of this entry »

SLICE® (emamectin benzoate), a leading product for controlling immature and adult stages of sea lice in farm-raised salmon, has received full approval from the Veterinary Drugs Directorate in Canada.

The approval was granted after the parasiticide met all of Health Canada’s requirements for human safety, according to the product’s developer, Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health. Read the rest of this entry »

Aqua Nor organizers are expecting a large number of international visitors to this year’s event, its 30 year anniversary.

Despite the international financial crisis and difficulties in some parts of the industry, many foreign delegations have indicated their planned participation. Between 400-500 people are expected at the Aquaculture Europe Conference organized by the European Aquaculture Society a few days ahead of the exhibition. Another 100+ delegates will participate in the International Aquaculture Biosecurity Conference, which is being organized for the first time in connection with Aqua Nor. Read the rest of this entry »

Our friends at Strategro International recently upgraded their website – Aquapreneur.com® - to better provide its global readership with an interactive platform for collaboration, networking, and acceleration of commercial developments within the marine biotechnology, marine products and marine ingredients sectors.

What does this have to do with aquaculture? Well, cultivating aquatic animals and plants for food is only one use of these resources. If we look at these same aquatic organisms as renewable resources to provide a diverse array of bioactives, ingredients, and products for novel applications, then aquaculture starts to look a whole lot more interesting. Read the rest of this entry »

John Kowarsky, of John Kowarsky & Associates in Australia, has developed a solution for aquaculturists and aquarists who need temporary holding systems for aquatic animals and plants. K Box Cones™, used to make the K Box™ system, provide an inexpensive and efficient means to hold your live fish, shellfish and aquatic plants.

According to John, the K Box™ system is a series of tubs, each fitted with a conical overflow pipe – the K Box Cone™ – towards one end. The tubs are then stacked so that the overflow of one is at the opposite end to the one below. The principle is simple - introduce water into the top tub, and it will overflow through the K Box Cone into the tub below, and so on, down the stack. The cascade effect assists with aeration and reduces the chances of stagnant areas in the tub. Water that has passed through the stack can be recirculated, or filtered and then re-circulated, or put to waste. Read the rest of this entry »

We were contacted several months ago by Nathan Saint Clair, the founder of Aquanate, who requested our help in marketing his fish farm and hatchery data management solution.

What we found attractive about Aquanate’s solution was that it was totally online; a web-based software that no longer required it to be installed on a computer. In fact, all one needed was a computer (PC or Mac) with Internet access to be able to use the various features of this software, which include: Inventory Analysis, Feed Tracking & Projections, Cost of Goods Calculation, Tagged Fish Tracking, and Facility Planning & Simulation. The last feature is especially useful for all those ‘what if’ scenarios that all managers want to think about. Read the rest of this entry »

Aqua Nor 2009, in Trondheim Norway, is fast approaching (18-21 August) and preparations for our aquaculture tours in conjunction with this event are coming along very well. To date, the majority of our registered tour participants have indicated a preference to visit Bergen and Stavanger after Trondheim.

If you are planning to go to Aqua Nor, why not consider spending a few days with us touring various R&D and production facilities. Knowing how intense Aqua Nor can be, our tours will give you an opportunity to relax and recover from your information overload. By not heading back to the office right away, you will be able to digest most of what you were exposed to at the trade show, as well as see technology in action and ask questions of people working directly in the field. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks for dropping by to visit our blog.

The Aquaculture Communications Group (ACG) is the Home of Aquaculture Science & Technology Information Services. Hence, this blog will focus on communicating the latest developments in aquaculture science and technology (S&T) to our colleagues in the global aquaculture community, as well as to others interested in the growth and evolution of this exciting seafood production industry.

Aquaculture, the farming of aquatic plants and animals, has been practised in various ways and in various regions of the world for thousands of years. Modern aquaculture, from about the 1960s onwards, began to employ many new practices derived from public and private research activities. Today’s aquatic farming industry is very information and knowledge intensive, utilizing advanced S&T to overcome the challenges associated with this pioneering, renewable resource development sector.

It is our objective to utilize our contacts within the global aquaculture community to seek out and communicate innovative S&T information, products, and services to help advance the growth and development of aquaculture everywhere.

If you have something to contribute and wish to participate in this initiative, please feel free to contact us with your ideas, information, solutions, etc. and we will share it with the community.

Cheers!

Dave and Tor-Eddie