November, December 2024

By Bonnie Waycott

By Matt Jones

By Treena Hein

From the Editor

BY JEAN KO DIN

Time for a refresh

There’s something about a new look that really forces you to approach the work in a new way.

I think that is what this redesign experience has been like for me and the Aquaculture North America team. The origins of this publication are a little harder to nail down than that of our sister publication, Hatchery International , which just celebrated its 25-year anniversary. But, that doesn’t mean that this publication didn’t also deserve a new start.

To me, it wasn’t just about the new logo or the new layout design. These visual updates were a signal for me to refresh the content, as well. In my first year as editor of this publication, I’ve slowly been introducing new types of content that I hope will become reliable mainstays for our readers.

The newest of these additions is Deep Dive, which is a new tips & tricks column from Ben Normand. Many of you may know him for his work as host of our Hatchery 101 webinar series at Hatchery International But actually, much of his expertise is actually within the wider aquaculture industry.

He started of his career in salmon farming in New Zealand. Then, he found his way to Prince Edward Island’s shellfish aquaculture industry before he discovered his passion for writing. You’ve seen his bylines in our pages for many years now, but he has also lent his talents to The Centre for Aquaculture Technologies, Fleming College, the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance and most recently, the Centre for Marine Applied Research. We hope that his experience and deep understanding of the wider industy can reflect the true nature of the North American fish farmer’s day-to-day work.

Another addition that has become more established in the past year is the Viewpoint section, which now finds its permanent home in the back page of the magazine. In this section, we once again invite voices of the North American industry to talk about important issues. In the past year, we’ve welcomed guest articles from the National Aquaculture

Association, the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance, the Aquaculture Information Exchange, the Pacific Seaweed Industry Association, and several other representatives that are working to unite the industry.

This is an important piece of the sector’s puzzle, especially now that there is so much dissention about aquaculture’s place the future of our food economy. I hope this becomes a place where the professionals who read our pages can be challenged to look outside of their everyday work and be connected to the bigger picture.

What I love most about this industry is that it enjoys such diversity in people, in species production, in technology. But I think this also means that there exists small pockets of community that operate in parallel of each other. There is so much untapped potential to be harnessed, if only we seized those opportunities for collaboration.

Aquaculture North America may have a new look but the mission of the publication stays the same. We want this magazine to be a hub where professionals can exchange information, as it has always been for many decades. Each of these pages should represent the issues and the stories that North American fish farmers care about.

And at the same time, we also hope that our editorial team can continue to surprise readers with the corners of the industry that you might not know about. We want to tell stories about new research and new technologies that you might not have heard about. We want to feature innovative farms that are challenging the limits of sustainable farming. We want to share the latest best practices that could elevate your daily operation.

But most of all, I hope that we can be a sounding board for new ideas that you would like to share with the larger aquaculture industry. This magazine is for you, dear reader, so I hope you feel welcome in being an active participant in it.

If you have new ideas you’d like to share, please consider reaching out to me via email at jkodin@annexbusinessmedia.com.

Aquaculture North America’s Editorial Advisory Board: Ian Roberts | Sandra Shumway | Jason Mann | Jeanne Mcknight | Mykolas Kamaitis | Jamie Baker

VOLUME 15, ISSUE 6 | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2024

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University of Maine offers virtual field trips to aquaculture sites

The University of Maine Cooperative Extension 4-H has launched virtual field trips (VFTs) of the state’s aquaculture industry. The project has launched with a virtual tour of the University of Maine Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research (CCAR) but aims to incorporate other aquaculture sites in the future.

“Our immersive experiences allow learners to virtually step inside aquaculture facilities, bringing them face-to-face with the fascinating processes of sustainable aquaculture,” says UofM press materials. “These engaging excursions provide a unique opportunity to connect with industry experts, witness cutting-edge technologies, and gain a deep understanding of the vital role aquaculture plays in Maine’s food systems.”

The virtual field trip concept started with the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, which worked with Stanford’s School of Education to develop learning solutions during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 4-H Science Professional Emily Booth says that they were inspired to further develop that concept at CCAR.

“As an organization, 4-H is focused on youth development, so our target audience is young people,” says Booth. “For this project, our aim is to reach young people by making these field trips available at no cost to educators in both formal and informal education settings. The VFTs also include 4-H activity guides to help youth engage with the content.”

The CCAR VFT takes the form of a series of 360˚ images with interactive content that users can click on to learn more about different aspects of the CCAR’s operations. The content comes in a variety of media forms, including text, photos, slideshows and videos.

“As we add new sites to our collection of aquaculture VFTs, our aim is to present an overview of different types of aquaculture happening throughout the state of Maine,” says Booth.

Seafood and Gender Equality receives US$715,000 grant to address sector inequities

Seafood and Gender Equality (SAGE) has received two philanthropic grants of US$715,000 from the Builders Initiative Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation to advance its work to build a more inclusive, diverse, and equitable seafood sector.

These grants show a dire need to address inequities in the seafood sector and that gender equality and empowering women are priorities, a press release from SAGE reads.

Jelani Odlum, program officer at Builders Initiative agrees. “By championing gender equality in the seafood industry, we are actively shaping the future we want to see. SAGE is urging seafood companies to evaluate their practices, address biases, and implement decisive measures to promote gender equality within their operations. We are pleased to partner with them to advance change in the industry and cultivate a more inclusive and sustainable seafood sector,” Odlum said.

This funding will support the implementation of the Gender Equality Dialogues (GED) — where seafood executives convene to align on the issues, commit to action, and leave equipped with the tools to advance equity within their operations — over the next three years.

SAGE is thankful for this support. “Seafood companies need a strong and reliable workforce and are experiencing challenges in this,” said Julie Kuchepatov, founder of SAGE. “Evaluating corporate policies and systems through an equity lens and enhancing them to go above and beyond compliance shows that a company values its employees’ contributions to its business.”

Fortune Fish and Gourmet, Acme Smoked Fish, and Seattle Fish participated in the yearlong pilot cohort of the GED, which ended in July. A significant achievement of the GED is the finalization of public commitments to gender equality. GED participants commit to:

• Serve as champions of a diverse and equitable seafood industry;

• Improve their understanding of how their existing practices and norms may limit or advance gender equity; and

• Engage in concerted efforts to support equal opportunity across the company, building

workplaces where the success and well-being of employees of all genders are supported. Every company participating in the GED must agree to these commitments and make efforts to achieve them with SAGE’s support.

“To find solutions that work for people and nature, we need the best ideas from everyone. The seafood industry has often left too many people out of the process. The foundation is impressed with the companies in the GED and their commitment to building gender equality in the seafood industry. Over 2,300 employees will be positively affected by the actions these companies take based on what they learned in the GED. We are excited to see this number substantially increase as other seafood companies step up and join future GED cohorts,” said Leo Pradela, program officer at the Walton Family Foundation.

“We are thrilled to partner with SAGE in this critical endeavour and believe that by working together to foster equity and inclusion, we can make significant strides toward a more sustainable seafood sector,” added Sean O’Scannlain, CEO of Fortune Fish and Gourmet.

USDA and Bigelow Laboratory call for investment in seaweed and seagrass farming

A report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences in East Boothbay, Maine, is calling for immediate investments in new R&D in farming seaweed and seagrasses.

The report, “Farming Seagrasses and Seaweeds: Responsible Restoration and Revenue Generation,” is the culmination of three years of a collaborative effort of an Interagency Working Group and the Steering Committee, and reflects all facets of the U.S. farmed seaweed and seagrass restoration sectors, a press release from the USDA states.

It also calls for business development and financing programs for sea farmers; enhanced collaboration between sea farmers, industry, and scientists; data collection and dissemination; innovation and infrastructure improvements; and policy and regulatory modernization to accelerate the growth of this emerging and high-powered sector.

“We are seeing a small but mighty seaweed-based industry forming along the nation’s coastline, transforming working waterfronts and giving a boost of energy to already-emerging life science and blue economy clusters from Maine to Alaska and beyond,” said Nichole Price, a senior research scientist from Bigelow Laboratory and the report’s

A virtual field trip demo highlights different aspects of this lumpfishing operation.

project manager.

It has input from 24 U.S. government agencies and over 1,000 stakeholders from across the U.S. and its territories, highlighting a significant increase in seaweed and seagrass research and development starting in 2000. This increase can be attributed to a significant desire by the private sector and government to spark new economic opportunities in coastal communities, increase supply chain sustainability through bio-manufacturing, and improve ocean health.

Industry leaders value seaweed as a regenerative and bio-based feedstock and the report emphasizes the value of seaweeds and seagrasses in cleaning and balancing the ocean, restoring marine habitats, removing legacy atmospheric carbon, protecting coastal property, controlling run-off pollution, and enriching voluntary carbon and nitrogen offset markets.

“Developing this report provided ARS an opportunity to work with seaweed and seagrass stakeholders that have not typically interacted with our Agency,” said Caird Rexroad, ARS national program leader for Aquaculture. “These stakeholders represent an up-and-coming industry that has tremendous potential to generate revenue and benefit the environment.”

In 2019, congress requested a comprehensive evaluation of U.S. seaweeds and seagrass farming and appointed the USDA to lead an interagency and public process to obtain the necessary information. The money to support this effort was released in 2021. USDA contracted Bigelow Laboratory, an independent and nonprofit research institute that studies global ocean health, to execute the work and help fulfill the congressional mandate.

Bigelow Laboratory’s Center for Seafood Solutions collaborated with the 42-member U.S. Government Interagency Working Group for the Research

of Farming of Seaweeds and Seagrasses to gain valuable understanding of the state of the science and industry through a series of inclusive virtual listening sessions and workshops, purposeful research projects, and one-on-one meetings.

The final report is shaped by stakeholder insight, science, and facts and includes valuable perspectives from Indigenous people.

“The future of this sector is bright,” Price said. “Let’s turn this great report into action and benefit America’s coastal communities by implementing its thoughtful recommendations.”

NOAA Fisheries outlines 4 key initiatives in National Seafood Strategy Implementation Plan

NOAA Fisheries has released its National Seafood Strategy Implementation Plan, which identifies four pilot initiatives to tackle cross-cutting issues.

The National Seafood Strategy, launched in 2023, outlines how the organization will support the U.S. seafood economy and strengthen the seafood sector, including wild-capture and aquaculture, to address various challenges. It was the culmination of years of input from NOAA Fisheries’ diverse constituencies. The implementation plan was informed by recommendations for specific actions from more than 150 public comments.

The plan is meant to be a document that will be revisited and updated based on additional inputs. “We will continue to consult with seafood industry members, management councils, states, tribes, and other constituents as we execute this implementation plan,” said Michael Rubino, the agency’s senior advisor for Seafood Strategy.

The four initiatives include efforts to:

• Bolster industry resilience in the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic shrimp fishery

• Support the revitalization of the

Port of Port Orford, Oregon

• Increase climate resilience in highly migratory species fisheries

• Support Alaska’s seafood sector resilience

“The Implementation Plan is where the rubber meets the road,” said Janet Coit, NOAA Fisheries assistant administrator.

“It outlines the specific actions to achieve the goals we laid out in the strategy to support our nation’s seafood sector and the benefits it provides.”

The plan focuses on NOAA Fisheries’ industry services, such as the Seafood Inspection Program, Fishery Finance Program and Saltonstall-Kennedy grant program. It identifies ongoing, new, and aspirational activities. It is coordinating with other federal agencies, states, tribes, harvesters and seafood farmers, nongovernmental organizations, and other groups to achieve this goal.

“No one entity can do this work alone. To truly achieve a more resilient and competitive seafood sector, we all need to work together. The National Seafood Strategy and now our Implementation Plan demonstrates what we at NOAA Fisheries can do to reach those goals,” Coit said.

NOAA reports that The U.S. seafood industry is facing challenges including climate change, new ocean uses, significant labour shortages, and aging infrastructure, resulting in an urgent situation for many fisheries and connected communities and putting the supply of sustainable seafood at risk.

“Ensuring a supply of sustainable seafood for consumption is a key part of NOAA Fisheries’ mission,” Rubino said. “Given the urgency, this plan is more important now than ever.”

USDA to fund largemouth bass aquaculture research at Southern Illinois

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has awarded a two-year grant of US$324,000 to Southern Illinois University researchers for a project to improve intensive aquaculture methods for largemouth bass.

Southern Illinois University will be partnering with Purdue University and local industry partner Big House Fish Farm on this project

to get a more productive and predictable yield for the species.

Jim Garvey, director of the Center for Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences at SIU said the market for Largemouth is growing in Southern Illinois, generating about US$3 million a year for local fish farmers with room for more.

Garvey and his co-leader, Habibollah Fakhraei, assistant professor of environmental engineering will determine ways to increase survival by reducing cannibalism in largemouth bass while encouraging them to eat formulated feeds.

Research assistant Asyeh Sohrabifar, post-doctoral student, Giovanni Molinari, and doctoral student, Alexander “Koaw” Zaczek are also working on the project, which is happening in nine ponds near SIU’s Touch of Nature Environmental Education Center south of Carbondale.

Zaczek said the team is using

Oyster Trays stacked with quality

three of the ponds to supply water to three 600-gallon tanks holding largemouth bass. They also partitioned three other ponds to keep the fish separated, while three other ponds held control group fish and are studying how the various holding methods impact the fish’s survival and growth.

The team is interested in the nitrogen cycles of each pond, watching for signs of trouble with the waste generated by the fish overwhelming the environment. They collect samples daily and weekly to run lab tests and monitor nutrient data and other factors, Zaczek said.

“Basically, the hope is that the ammonia released by the fish is broken down into nitrite and then nitrate in the non-fish-containing portion of the ponds so that the returned water to the fish of the pond contains minimal to no ammonia,” he said.

Encouraging fish to eat more evenly across the population might prove easier in denser populations, Zaczek added.

“We’re trying to get all the fish to take to the feed early,” he said. “In a big pond, where the fish are spread out, it becomes more difficult to ensure even feeding, and it’s harder to get fish to take to the feed early. The fish that do take to the feed early get a head start, grow big and are more likely to eat their cohorts.”

“Buyers are happier if fish are of similar size, and sellers are happier when they are capable of delivering more product,” Zaczek said. “As in most industries, efficiency is always the goal in aquaculture.”

Community

engagement will be key to grow Alaskan aquaculture: NOAA report

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the State of Alaska have released the summary report for the Alaska aquaculture opportunity area spatial planning workshops.

The workshops which took place in February and March were reported to foster information sharing and discussion of the ongoing aquaculture opportunity area identification process in Alaska state waters.

With the fish living in such conditions, cannibalism can certainly take a bite out of the bottom line. Discouraging this behaviour in largemouth bass is a challenge, Zaczek said.

“Well, that’s something easier said than done,” he said. “The hope is the confined space and higher fish density will cause the fish to take to the feed better and eat more similarly, which also would encourage similar growth rates. They are less likely to eat each other if they are the same size.”

Success might lead to other fish farmers experimenting with such methods on their properties using other common species found in aquaculture such as catfish.

Alaska’s Aquaculture Opportunity Area (AOA) identification is a multi-year planning process that uses spatial analysis, scientific review, and input from Alaska Natives and the public to find suitable locations. The goal is to minimize conflicts with other ocean activities, optimize conditions for the growth of selected species, and maintain a strong commitment to ocean stewardship.

Some of the takeaways and developing insights to support AOA planning in Alaska state waters from the participants are:

1. The importance of early and ongoing engagement with Alaska Native communities and NOAA should meet with Alaska Native Tribes in person.

2. Agencies should establish and maintain clear lines of communication with Alaska Native Tribes.

3. NOAA and other agencies can learn from the past efforts of ADF&G’s Fisheries Rehabilitation, Enhancement, and Development Program on how to better engage and work with Alaska Native Tribes.

Doctoral student Alexander Zaczek works on one of three 600-gallon tanks holding largemouth bass at a research fishery south of Carbondale.

4. A significant concern is that a great deal of effort and resources will be expended to complete the AOA Atlas for Alaska, and yet this resource will become outdated in a short period of time.

5. It is important to engage communities as soon as possible as the time to complete this AOA process seems short. And NOAA should consider slowing down this process to allow more time to connect with communities.

The AOA process is anticipated to take approximately four years to complete. This timeframe is split into two phases: Phase 1 is focused on the aquaculture spatial suitability analysis and will take approximately two years, while Phase 2 is focused on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) analysis and will also take approximately two years.

The report stated that a central goal in Alaska is to identify areas that can accommodate multiple seaweed and invertebrate aquaculture operations.

“The insights gained through these workshops have allowed NOAA to focus engagement and follow up on data leads. We have

also begun to fill in the data gaps for the Alaska Aquaculture Opportunity Area spatial analysis. We would like to thank the workshop participants for the valuable information and perspectives provided, and for making this a better product for Alaska,” said Alicia Bishop, Alaska Regional aquaculture coordinator, NOAA Fisheries.

Over 140 people were in attendance at the workshops, including Alaska Native community members, fishermen, aquaculture industry representatives, environmental organizations, scientists, subject matter experts, and state and federal agency personnel.

Some participants spoke on the importance of including freshwater influx and nutrient data. And some on kelp beds around sacred sites in Southeast Alaska that Alaska Native Tribes will want to be protected from the impacts of farming operations.

NOAA stated the workshop outcomes synthesized in this report will assist key stakeholders with planning for future aquaculture development in Alaska.

The workshops also identified a range of data leads and gaps across each ocean sector

explored, and are included in the report as well as additional questions, concerns and insights put forward by participants.

NOAA said it will be releasing the draft Aquaculture Opportunity Area spatial analysis results for public comment in early 2025.

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NOAA Fisheries Aquaculture staff discussing oyster farming strategies with stakeholders near Juneau, Alaska.

In case you missed it

BY JEAN KO DIN

Canada releases long-awaited transition plan for B.C. salmon farming

Implementation of the plan will take longer than five years, the document says

The Government of Canada has released its long-awaited transition plan for B.C. salmon farming.

Originally slated for the end of July, the draft document was released through Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) late Friday afternoon on Sept. 20, a day before the official start date of British Columbia’s provincial election campaign. The 20-page document, titled “Salmon Aquaculture Transition Plan for British Columbia (B.C.),” emphasizes four key areas in which the government intends to facilitate a move from open net pens to closed containment aquaculture by June 30, 2029.

ISED is a federal institution that focuses on economic development to enhance Canada’s innovation performance and increase Canada’s share of global trade.

“Implementation of the plan is anticipated to take place over a longer period than the five years associated with a transition away from open net-pen salmon aquaculture,” the document says. “Over the next ten years, the Government of Canada, together with its partner agencies, will produce an annual update on progress related to the plan’s implementation, which will be made available publicly.”

The four areas of focus were defined as:

• support for First Nations, workers, and communities through this transition;

• identifying economic support for the adoption of innovative and clean aquaculture technology;

• milestones, principles, and criteria for the phase down of salmon open net-pen aquaculture;

• management of open net-pen salmon aquaculture until the ban is fully implemented.

“First Nations, industry, coastal communities, all levels of governments, private businesses, academia, international experts and investors will all be important contributors to the development of approaches

to facilitate a transition in innovative and clean aquaculture technologies,” the document outlines.

The draft plan says Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) will introduce amendments to the Pacific Aquaculture Regulations to include support for both the implementation of the open net pens ban and the regulation of marine and land-based closed containment salmon aquaculture. This also includes changes to the conditions of the five-year licences renewed on July 1.

“These conditions include a reduction in the allowable thresholds for sea lice during the wild salmon out-migration periods, new requirements related to reporting marine mammal interactions, and new inventory accounting requirements, which include detailed production cycle reporting on harvest, mortalities, predator interactions, and escapes,” the document says.

This review and supporting changes will be taken at the two-year point of licences starting in 2026. Serious or repeat non-compliance to these new measures are said to result in suspension or cancellation

of licences.

Considerations for shellfish, seaweed, hatcheries, and other finfish species might also be included in the plan. The draft document mentions a “significant contribution” to the expansion of local First Nations economies on the coast, giving an example of increasing hatchery or processing capacity, or expanded opportunities for multi-trophic aquaculture approaches.

The document also outlines DFO’s commitment to expediting new licence applications for closed-containment and land-based aquaculture in order to attract new innovation and new investment in the sector. It promises support for research and development, for Canadian innovation and pilots, and reducing barriers to construction of new facilities. The government adds a commitment to training and re-skilling supports for individuals “focused on new industry opportunities.”

The document hints at additional governmental funding and support for clean technology innovation, including promises to grow much-needed infrastructure within the province.

“While electricity is an area of provincial responsibility, a number of federal measures have been put in place to support the decarbonization of the electricity sector, including Investment Tax Credits, low-cost financing from the Canada Infrastructure Bank, and targeted programming such as the Smart Renewables and Electrification Pathways Program and the Clean Electricity for Rural and Remote Communities Program.

“In addition, the Government of Canada has established the Regional Energy and Resource Tables, as part of a collaborative initiative with the provinces and territories designed to identify, prioritize, and pursue opportunities for sustainable job creation and economic growth for a low-carbon future in the energy, electricity, mining, forestry, and clean technology sectors across all of Canada’s regions,” the document says.

Originally slated for the end of July, the Government of Canada released the draft document on Sept. 20.

In

case you missed it

BY SEYITAN MORITIWON

Women leaders are essential to industry growth

This year’s Women in North American Aquaculture (WINAA) Summit focuses on advocacy in action.

Indigenous people are saying they deserve the right to make decisions about what’s good for them and their territories concerning aquaculture, especially with the pushback on net pens.

At the recently Women in North American Aquaculture (WINAA) Summit, Dawn Madahbee Leach, general manager of the Waubetek Business Development Corporation, said there needs to be good information available that combines science and the traditional knowledge of Indigenous people.

“We’ve had people telling us what to do for many years in our own traditional territories and right now we want to make those decisions ourselves,” she added.

The WINAA Summit is annual gathering of women leaders in aquaculture. This year’s virtual event (Sept. 5) had more than 230 people registered to hear women advocates from different organizations in the aquaculture industry.

Erin Latham, a natural resources specialist, at Wei Wai Kum First Nation, and a panellist at the summit, said salmon farming companies have created some space and opportunities to have conversations with the government and First Nations are stepping forward and taking strong leads with organizations like the Coalition for First Nations Finfish Stewardship leading the sector and educating the government.

“When we’re advocating, it’s only because we’ve done the homework. We know the kinds of systems that we want in place that’s going to be good for us and making sure that our water is protected but also making sure that we can provide food for our people,” Madahbee Leach added.

Women leadership

As part of its means of advocating for gender equality in seafood, SAGE launched the gender equality dialogue (GED) in August 2023 with three companies to align on issues and develop public-facing commitments as it relates to gender equality.

This could include addressing gender equality within sustainability and business goals; increased collaboration between departments in participating companies; involvement of

company leadership and participating in the GED and working with SAGE’s gender action framework serves as a market differentiator.

After a successful pilot program, SAGE is currently recruiting participant companies for the next GED cohort, scheduled to begin in early 2025.

BIPOC representation

Women who are acquiring leadership positions, more work also needs to be done to increase black, Indigenous, people of colour (BIPOC) representation throughout job roles, across the aquaculture sector.

Women in Caribbean Aquaculture (WiCA) founder, Juli-Anne Russo stressed the importance of mentorship and support in aquaculture, one of the reasons she started.

There are not a lot of statistics about the roles of women in the Caribbean so the first initiative of WiCA is to see who the other women in aquaculture are by organizing more networking events and capacity building.

“Where do we need to then improve their involvement? What kind of help do they need, what kind of assistance do we need to render for them to be in these leadership and mentorship roles,” Leanne Bennett, senior research officer at the National Fisheries Authority Jamaica added.

Jalima Gold, president of Belize Women’s Seaweed Farmers Association, said traditionally, women have never really been out

there in the ocean.

When the Belize Women’s Seaweed Farmers Association was founded, although it was about farming seaweed and creating alternative livelihoods, she and other founding members realized there was an undertone of gender equality that needed to be addressed.

To push away this narrative, they recently had their first female captain training, empowering them to be on their own in the ocean as captains. And they continue to do their bit, advocating for women’s space in this sector.

Indigenous stewardship

The Waubetek Business Development Corporation, which Madahbee Leach manages is an Indigenous financial institution that provides financing and economic services to Indigenous entrepreneurs and First Nation communities in northeast Ontario.

Madahbee Leach said they’re in the process of developing an Indigenous Center of Excellence on aquaculture. It will be a support to the businesses in the industry to provide advice to communities who are implementing the fish law.

“The Center of Excellence will be able to go and be an independent party doing water testing. Currently, aquaculture operations do their own testing but we wanted to have a third party do the arms-length water testing, water quality and all different kinds of testing,” Madahbee Leach said.

The 2024 Women in North American Aquaculture (WINAA) Summit was developed with the theme of advocacy.

Father of IMTA

Remembering Thierry Chopin, an IMTA advocate and aquaculture champion

By Bonnie Waycott

The world of aquaculture recently honoured a tireless advocate of seaweed culture and his life’s work.

Thierry Chopin, professor of Marine Biology at the University of New Brunswick in Canada and a tireless advocate of seaweed aquaculture, passed away on July 18, 2024 on Prince Edward Island in Canada. He was 65.

Born and educated in France, Chopin was a seaweed ecophysiologist and biochemist in Brittany, northwestern France. His love for the sea started at an early age, when vacationing with his family along the French coast and sailing the waters there instilled his love of the Atlantic ocean. In 1989, he moved to Canada. A career in marine biology began, with a focus on the ecophysiology, biochemistry and cultivation of commercial value seaweeds, and the development of Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) systems to promote environmental sustainability, economic stability, and societal acceptability of aquatic farming. Chopin was also the director of the Seaweed and Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) Research Laboratory, and past president of the Aquaculture Association of Canada (AAC), the Phycological Society of America, and the International Seaweed Association.

In 2016, Chopin created his own consultancy, Chopin Coastal Health Solutions Inc. The following year, he was awarded the Honorary Consul of France and chevalier in the Ordre des Palmes Académiques. That same year, he created the Thierry Chopin Award for Graduate Coastal Studies, which is given annually to a promising graduate student at the Saint John campus of the University of New Brunswick (UNBSJ) in the areas of phycology, marine and freshwater IMTA, and coastal biology.

Other accolades include the NSERC

Thierry Chopin is often recognized for his work in developing further research around Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) systems.

Thierry Chopin and Steve Backman harvesting seaweed at Magellan Aqua Farms Inc. in St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada.

Synergy Award for Innovation, the Aquaculture Association of Canada Research Award of Excellence, and the New Brunswick BioSciences Achievement Award. Chopin’s dedication has also been recognized with prestigious honors, such as being named a Knight in the Ordre National du Mérite and receiving the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal.

“It’s impossible to capture Thierry’s essence with mere words,” said Steven

as a wonderful, generous, and kind person who always gave people their say and who then engaged in his uniquely interminable manner. I’m glad IMTA will always be with us, as it will forever be aligned with Thierry and his legacy.”

IMTA pioneer

Chopin was most celebrated for developing

and trademarking the concept of IMTA. He defined it as the cultivation of species at two or more different trophic levels, based on their complementary ecosystem functions, such as fed species (e.g. finfish), particulate organic nutrient extractive species (e.g. shellfish and other invertebrates, herbivorous fish) and dissolved inorganic nutrient extractive species (e.g. macro- and

micro-algae and plants).

Chopin believed that IMTA held great benefits. What was previously considered the byproducts of one species could be used as feed or energy by other species, he said. IMTA also provides economic diversification in an efficient and responsible food production system.

“His presentations were famously capped with a unique IMTA dance

to the tune of the Village People’s ‘YMCA,’” said Backman. “Inspired by this, I’ve penned a few playful lyrics that I hope capture the spirit of Thierry’s contributions:

“Young man, there’s no need to feel low, I said, young man, it’s Nature’s you know, I said, young man, it’s a sustainable goal, There’s a need to be greener. Young girl, there’s a way you can go,

I said, young girl, now that you’re in the know,

You can feed more, and I’m sure you will find,

Many ways to green your sea farm. It’s fun to practice IMTA, It’s fun to practice IMTA.”

Chopin was also one of the masterminds behind the Canadian Integrated Multitrophic Aquaculture Network (CIMTAN). His work in developing and managing the network was a testament to his creative insights into interdisciplinary research, and his foresight and energy in bringing R&D with numerous industry partners such as Cooke Aquaculture, said Professor Richard Moccia at the University of Guelph in Ontario. He describes Thierry as a forward thinker who has worked tirelessly over his entire career to bring knowledge and critical thinking to the discussion table.

“He built bridges provincially, nationally and internationally between the academic, public and private sectors, something that few individuals are capable of doing well,” said Moccia.

“I greatly admired his ability to combine research, teaching and extension outreach together and bring more holistic messaging about aquaculture to a broader social community. This is extremely important, as the sector needs pragmatic and credible information to help maintain its ‘social licence’ to farm seafood in Canada. Thierry worked hard to be seen as a balanced, thoughtful spokesperson for the sector.”

Academia and beyond

Chopin was deeply committed to his students, striving to make learning a dynamic, meaningful experience, remembered Backman. He believed in fostering critical thinking and understanding, rather than rote memorization. His commitment to education is further reflected in the scholarship fund he established at UNBSJ, a lasting tribute to his dedication and a way to support future generations.

Caroline Longtin, a former post-doctoral fellow in Chopin’s lab, admired his knowledge and strong passion for seaweed biology and

Barry Antonio Costa-Pierce and Thierry Chopin have been friends and colleagues for more than 30 years.

Thierry Chopin pictured at his office at University of New Brunswick. He worked as professor of marine biology and scientific director of CIMTAN for more than 35 years.

PHOTOS: BARRY ANTONIO COSTA-PIERCE

aquaculture.

“I first met Thierry in 2010 when he was an examiner on my comprehensive examination committee for my PhD,” she said. “He had brilliant ideas for how seaweeds could be used to make the world a greener, more sustainable place. I spent just over two years as a member of his lab, where he gave me the freedom to explore my interests and taught me about seaweed aquaculture. Now, with a career at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, I am grateful for Thierry’s knowledge and mentorship.”

“One of my favorite memories of Thierry captures his essence perfectly,” said Backman. “In a photo from one of his class lectures, he is seen with a beaming smile, passionately discussing kelp chocolate with his students, always encouraging them to think outside the box. His enthusiasm wasn’t confined to academia; he was also a pillar in his community, supporting local causes, preserving Acadian heritage, and championing the arts through the Imperial Theatre.”

Chopin’s love for fine food and cooking,

and his membership in the Bailliage of New Brunswick of La Chaine des Rotisseurs, were reflections of his zest for life, said Backman. “In our business, he was equally dedicated, eagerly promoting the benefits of seaweeds and ready to get hands-on, whether rolling up his sleeves, seeding the lines or donning slickers and getting down and kelpy.”

As a friend, Chopin was a compassionate and empathetic listener, said Backman, always offering honest advice. But above all, his greatest pride and joy were his family. Chopin’s love for his soulmate Kathy, with whom he shared unforgettable moments like an underwater adventure in a deep submersible, and his daughters Marine and Morgan, along with his new grandson Calvin Edward Henri, brought him immense happiness. “Just the mention of Calvin’s name could light up Thierry’s face,” said Backman.

Chopin’s legacy is one of profound impact and inspiration, he added.

“Through our collaboration, I discovered

Thierry to be a remarkable individual,” he said. “He was driven by passion and creativity, using his impressive array of skills to tackle complex challenges with scientific rigor and innovative thinking. Thierry’s academic career is a testament to his brilliance, evidenced by his extensive, high-quality body of work. He achieved so much good in his lifetime, and his passion and energy for making the world a better place serve as a shining example for us all.”

“We invited each other to many important gatherings worldwide, and had glorious, good fun together over the decades,” said Costa-Pierce. “I visited him in March this year and stayed with him and Kathy. He was to retire soon, and we made great plans to stir up the cosmos even more than our last two controversial papers had done. I’m sad beyond words knowing of Thierry’s sudden passing. A true lion of our global community has passed into the light. In the words of Dr. Seuss, which makes me smile through the tears, ‘Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it’s happened.’”

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No silver bullet

Research continues to investigate new frontiers to combat sea lice in salmon aquaculture.

By Matt Jones

Sea lice continues to be one of, if not the, most pressing issues facing the aquaculture industry.

Kari Olli Helgesen of the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducts a yearly survey as part of their annual Fish Health Report.

“We ask fish health personnel working in fish health companies, the industry or authorities, to rank what they think is most important,” says Helgesen. “And every year,

sea lice comes up on top or as one of the top issues for both salmon and rainbow trout.”

With that being the case, developing new sea lice treatments remains a key priority for the industry. But where are researchers and academics in the aquaculture sector currently focused in the fight to develop new sea lice treatments?

Vaccines and genetic editing

Helgesen notes that there has been ongoing research looking at the possibility of developing sea lice vaccines for many years. However, she is unsure if they will succeed as previous attempts at developing an ectoparasite vaccine have proven extremely difficult.

“If they succeed, that would be a truly novel approach,” says Helgesen. “Another novel approach, though I don’t know how

realistic it is to use it, is CRISPR technology for genetic editing. Several Pacific salmon species are more resistant to sea lice than Atlantic salmon, so there might be a possibility there. There has been a project looking into reasons why Pacific salmon are more resistant, and I don’t know if they moved as far as trying to create genetically edited Atlantic salmon.”

That research will likely be conducted in places other than Norway, however, since Norwegian regulations don’t allow the production of any genetically modified organisms.

Cleaner fish

One avenue that is still being explored is the possibility of using other species of fish such as lumpfish that would consume the

sea lice off the salmon. This is hardly a new concept – cleaner fish have been used in the European aquaculture industry for decades. However, while the concept of these types of treatments is not new, the details are still being worked out.

Lumpfish are held back from reaching their full potential as a treatment simply due to the extreme levels of aggression that they exhibit. It’s not a problem when the lumpfish are interacting with the salmon or the sea lice, but it is a significant problem when rearing lumpfish for that purpose. Elizabeth Fairchild, a research associate professor with the University of New Hampshire and the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station, co-authored a study looking at ways to reduce that aggression.

“It seems to happen mostly when they’re very small juveniles and it lessens as the fish grow out of that phase,” says Fairchild. “But this does affect production. You’re going to be pulling out fish that have been nipped at as they grow – those fins are not going to heal back to what they originally were.”

That aggression could be caused by being raised in captivity in the first place. Lumpfish are not a schooling fish by nature so there has been little research to suggest that such aggression occurs in the wild. As such, the research Fairchild co-authored examined simulating a more natural environment by reducing stocking densities and altering lighting schemes.

“In nature, the little small guys are going to be more up at the surface than down at the bottom, so they’re going to be exposed to a natural light and dark photo period,” says Fairchild. “It’s very unnatural in hatcheries, we’re packing fish in a very dense setting. Industrial food production is much different than natural food production.”

Fairchild’s research found that instances of tail fin nipping as a sign of aggression lessened when the fish had 12 hours of light followed by 12 hours of dark (rather than constant light) and when densities were reduced.

Fisheries biologist, Michael Pietrak, of the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Cold Water Marine Aquaculture Center cautions, however, that such techniques have not been proven in North America as of yet. Researchers are looking for North American wrasse species to replace traditional European cleaner fish species such as the ballan and goldsinny wrasse.

“That’s where lumpfish come in, that’s a wrasse species that is native to this side of the

Atlantic,” says Pietrak. “But they have some issues. Wrasse, in general, go into a torpor when the water temperatures start to go below seven or eight degrees Celsius. They’re not really efficient in cold water. They also require about two years in the hatchery

before they’re at the right size to stock out to eat sea lice in the pens, so that makes them economically challenging. Whereas lumpfish are incredibly fast growers.”

Pietrak says that the USDA are also examining the use of therapeutic approaches, in particular natural products and compounds, as well as vaccination strategies, though they are still at an exploratory stage.

SAVED

A team of researchers representing Scotland and Norway are currently working on a new benchmark testing tool which could help validate predictions of the dispersion of sea lice. SAVED – Sustainable Aquaculture: Validating Ectoparasite Dispersal (Models) – is designed to validate the results of dispersion models that farmers and regulatory bodies use in their planning. The tool, which will be available for free online, will determine dispersion based on wind and tidal data, light exposure and other factors.

“Different sea lice dispersal models use varying complex mathematical techniques, but it is important to ensure that the same set of input data returns a valid result, not

Chris Davis

matter which product is used,” Meadhbh Moriarty told Fish Farming Expert. “To reduce the variability, we are creating a bespoke Python script that can be applied to each model and ensure it is fit for purpose.”

New approaches

Helgesen says that, particularly in Norway, chemical sea lice treatments have become a smaller and smaller part of the aquaculturist’s toolbox since around 2016. This move was predicated not just by a desire for more eco-friendly treatments, but also that sea lice were becoming resistant to the previous chemical treatments.

“They were forced to find other solutions,” says Helgesen. “They are more eco-friendly, but they are more expensive and they are worse for fish welfare. So it’s not an obvious choice to move away from effective chemicals, but ineffective chemicals you have to move away from. There are many different answers and it will depend on who you ask what answer you will have. Once the new non-medicinal methods were developed, and they had invested in those types of machines – boats with the capacity to treat a lot of fish – then it was kind of a snowball that had started rolling.”

The main treatments that she sees in use these days are thermic, mechanical and freshwater treatments, including devices that utilize lukewarm water to shock lice off of salmon with the temperature change. These devices can be effective, but there is a question of whether they cause undue stress on the salmon, which can have a panic reaction and injure themselves during the treatment.

“From what I know of, it’s more the methods that will protect the fish from the lice, like physical barriers and closed containers,” says Helgesen. “I think that’s what industry wants to talk about because that will most likely avoid many of the welfare issues also associated with sea lice treatments.”

Those physical barriers include subsurface cages and closed cages with actual walls that the water is pumped in and out of. But the economic case for closed systems is still being proven, so that has not taken a massive foothold in the industry. Until that changes, she sees sea pens remaining the standard in the industry.

No panacea

Pietrak makes one important distinction – none of these techniques are going to be the one solution that finally solves the problem. It’s a wide-ranging and varied industry and solving these problems will require a variety of solutions.

“I strongly believe that sea lice are not going to be managed by any single treatment,” says Pietrak. “There’s no silver bullet out there. It’s going to take some kind of combined strategy in an integrated pest management plan that’s going to have to be tailored for each specific farm. For each company, how they evaluate which set of treatment methods or tools are going to be most effective for them are going to be based on a wide range of factors, including the local environment, the economics and the resources that are available or not.”

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These recently hatched lumpfish could be used someday to eat sea lice off of salmon.

Preventing disease through feed

A look at microbial oils to combat viral disease in salmon.

By Treena Hein

Can certain feed ingredients impart viral immunity to farmed salmon?

Answering that question is the focus of a preliminary research project in Eastern Canada that started this spring and recently concluded in early October.

It is well known that immunity in humans and other mammals, fish and more can be boosted through diet, but this hasn’t been investigated much in fish.

This project, based at Memorial University’s Department of Ocean Sciences (Newfoundland) and co-funded by Genome Atlantic and the Ocean Frontier Institute Seed Fund, is led by Albert Caballero Solares (formerly at Memorial University, now an aquaculture lecturer at University of Stirling

in Scotland) and Matthew Rise at Memorial University.

Other team members are Chris Parrish and Mohamed Elsayed Emam at Memorial, Stefanie Colombo, who is Canada Research Chair in Aquanutrition at Dalhousie University, and two scientists from the Institut de Ciències del Mar in Spain.

The ingredient this team is exploring for immune response is microbial oil. These oils are already of growing interest to farmers of salmon and other predatory fish because they have great potential to reduce pressure on wild-caught fish or reliance on oil from canola or other crops.

The species chosen to test immune response is lumpfish. As those in the industry are aware, this marine species is used by the aquaculture industry as a cleaner fish

to reduce sea lice on Atlantic salmon farms.

“Lumpfish is also a commercially-significant marine fish found in the North Atlantic,” says Caballero Solares. “Wild animals are harvested for roe and there is also rapidly increasing lumpfish aquaculture industry.”

He and his colleagues are confident the lumpfish results will be transferrable to farmed salmon.

The Ocean Sciences Centre at Memorial is actually home to North America’s leading cleaner fish research and development (R&D) facility where lumpfish are raised for study and also ‘modest commercial’ purposes.

Caballero Solares has stated that he and his colleagues expect microbial oils to have an impact on the immune response of lumpfish that could be leveraged in the design of

Researchers at the Memorial University of Newfoundland are testing fish’s immune response to microbial oil in fish feed.

Weekly mortality (%) in sea cages 2 (blue) and 3 (red). The dotted line indicates a diet change to Aqura in C3 from week 23. Asterisks indicate the time of samplings (weeks 23, 27 and 43). Asterisks indicate the three sampling time points.

novel feeds, but the idea of using them is this way and studying this area is “very new.”

Oil details

Microorganisms such as microalgae, fungi and bacteria which naturally accumulate high levels of lipids can be cultivated for oil harvest. The microbial oils for this research come from a fungal-like organism (a thraustochytrid) grown by a Nova Scotia biotech firm called Mara Renewables Corporation.

“We have worked with single-celled thraustochytrids from Mara and the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation before,” says Caballero Solares.

For example, his colleagues published results on the effects of feeding whole thraustochytrid biomass on the performance and body composition of farmed Atlantic salmon fingerlings.

Last year, others published a look at the effects of replacing fish oil with a microbial oil from Schizochytrium sp. (T18) on membrane lipid composition of Atlantic salmon parr muscle and liver tissues, based on a previous studies.

The microbe strain in question is not genetically modified and is exceptionally abundant in the Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid called docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), commonly found in salmon and other fatty fish.

“DHA is a well-known cardiac health promoter in humans and has proven to modulate as a precursor of hormone-like anti-inflammatory metabolites (eicosanoids) and by influencing cell function (including immune cells) as an essential component of their membranes,” explains Caballero Solares.

“This study is intended to be the seed for future research on the beneficial effects

Principal coordinates analysis (PCO) of Atlantic salmon muscle tissue total fatty acid composition (%) after 16 weeks of feeding experimental diets.

of Omega-3-rich microbial oils on fish immunity. Therefore, we will first approach this question by looking at changes in the expression of immune-relevant genes.”

Study design

To assess the immune response, the lumpfish are being fed a diet otherwise identical but where one group gets fish/plant oil and others have the Mara microbial oil. This

sounds quite straightforward, but it’s tricky to determine the make-up of the test diet, says Caballero Solares, in terms of what might be determined from a fish immunology point of view and what is relevant to the industry. Colombo and Parrish are in charge of the study diet as they have expertise in this area.

“On the one hand, as scientists, we are keen on pushing the test parameters (in this

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case, the level of microbial oil inclusion in the diet and dietary DHA levels) to prompt significant and measurable physiological adjustments in the animals,” says Caballero Solares. “On the other hand, the industry prefers testing practical, cost-effective diets, which usually entails more restrained inclusion levels of the test ingredient.”

Fish are now being acclimated to the aquatic holding conditions at Memorial and will soon start being fed the experimental diets. The trial will then continue for 12 weeks, during which the fish of the two diet groups will grow and accumulate differences in body lipid composition.

“At the end of the trial, the fish will be challenged with saline or poly(I:C), a compound that, while completely harmless to the fish, will mimic a viral infection and trigger a robust antiviral response in the fish,” explains Caballero Solares.

“Based on our previous research, we anticipate that the body lipid composition changes will translate into differential gene expression responses [relating to immunity] in the two diet groups.”

Changes in their lipid composition and genes will be evaluated at Memorial while variance in their DNA methylation (a reversible chemical modification to DNA that influences how genes are turned on or off) will be analyzed in Spain.

Cardiomyopathy syndrome

In January 2024, a study was published looking at the effects on cardiomyopathy syndrome (CMS) of feeding a diet enriched with DHA and EPA fatty acids at a salmon farm in Norway with a severe CMS outbreak.

Researchers are testing immune response in lumpfish, hoping the results can be transferrable to farmed salmon. PHOTO:

"This study is intended to be the seed for future research on the beneficial effects of

Omega-3

rich microbial oils on fish immunity,” says researcher.

The research team is made up of scientists from Skretting, Nordlaks Havbruk and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.

Following the implementation of the diet, “a decline in mortality rates, regression of CMS-associated changes, and a significant reduction in piscine myocarditis virus [which causes CMS] RNA load were observed within the salmon population.

Fatty acid composition analysis

of heart samples demonstrated increased levels of EPA and DHA, reinforcing the association between dietary factors, viral load dynamics and overall fish health.”

The team noted that although further validation is needed and field trials may not be sufficient to establish causation, “our results indicate that optimizing the EPA+DHA levels may prove beneficial in severe CMS outbreaks.”

Some diseases in Atlantic salmon

Infectious salmon anemia is a serious viral fish disease that affects farmed and wild Atlantic salmon in several areas of the world. ISA was found in Maine in 2001. In some cases, ISA-infected fish won’t show any signs of illness. They maintain a normal appetite and then die suddenly. Signs of ISA can occur with other fish diseases.

Cardiomyopathy syndrome (CMS) is a viral disease in farmed Atlantic salmon and is associated with infection with piscine myocarditis virus (PMCV). CMS has been documented in Norway, Scotland, the Faroe Islands, Ireland and Canada. CMS is considered the most common cause of mortality during the seawater phase and is thus a major concern in Atlantic salmon aquaculture.

Piscine orthoreovirus (PRV) causes heart and skeletal muscle inflammation (HSMI) in farmed Atlantic salmon. During salmon production cycles, HSMI has predominantly been observed after seawater transfer. More recently, better surveillance and longitudinal studies have detected occurrences of PRV-1 in freshwater broodstock farms and hatcheries.

Salmonid alphavirus strain 3 is responsible for outbreaks of pancreas disease in salmon and rainbow trout in Norway.

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Deep Dive

BY BEN NORMAND

Winter preparedness

Ben Normand a fish farmer, writer, college instructor, and cheerleader for aquaculture. He has worked with various fin and shellfish species in New Zealand and Canada in production management, compliance, and communications. (ben.r.normand@gmail.com)

Simple tips and reminders to get fish farmers through the colder seasons.

As the weather cools, feed and growth rates begin to slow and biofouling growth tapers off. Someone outside of the industry might think that work is beginning to slow down for fish farmers through the fall and early winter, but this simply isn’t the case. In fact, things tend to be a little more rushed at this time of year.

There is plenty of work to be done to prepare for winter, shorter days within which that work can be done, and increasingly challenging weather conditions that rob farmers of working time. How can we maximize useful time and stay comfortable on the farm as autumn progresses and winter descends?

Stay dry

Research shows us that cold water causes our bodies to lose heat 20-25 times faster than cold air.

While working on a boat or a farm doesn’t mean you’re submerged in cold water (at least I hope you’re not!), it’s not hard to get soaked over the course of the day. Once your clothes are wet, and you start to get too cold, it’s very difficult to get warm again until you change. This is especially true of your extremities.

Ensure you have your foul weather gear on or nearby, gloves without holes and warm socks under your waterproof boots. Cotton and fleece are not good at retaining body heat once wet, but wool stands as a better choice when working in wet and cold conditions.

Layer up

You would be surprised how warm you can get when the sun is out and you’re working hard, even if the air temperature is in the negatives. Part of staying dry is protecting

yourself from external water sources, but it’s also preventing excessive perspiration. If you’re getting warm enough to sweat, it’s easy to shed a layer to cool down. If you get too cold, put it back on. Having multiple layers that you can use to adjust your temperature is worth the effort it takes to plan your outfits.

Be flexible

If particularly bad weather is predicted,

Although temperatures are beginning to drop in many areas in North America, the work continues. Stay safe and stay warm!

make an extra push to complete work ahead of it. Pushing through bad weather can not only decrease productivity, it can be downright dangerous.

Take the day off if anything more than a light flurry is predicted and regroup after the snowfall has stopped. As well, be open to working unconventional days to maximize working time on good weather days.

For example, does it look like

Wednesday is miserable this week but Saturday is beautiful? Talk to your crew and see if they are willing to switch their day off. Maybe the entire crew doesn’t want to do that, and that’s okay because they have lives outside of work, but in my experience, many are open to it when the alternative is working in worse conditions or even losing paid hours because of the weather.

Keep your engines running

This advice pertains more to very, very cold days, than more mild ones.

Logic would dictate we should turn engines off when they are not actively working to minimize wear and tear and decrease fuel consumption. However, downtime caused by frozen engines that won’t start costs much more than the fuel they burn when sitting idle.

Imagine being out on the ice, trying to harvest mussels, with a dozen staff standing around because one small engine will not start in the cold. That will cost you more than the liter of gasoline you saved by turning the engine off for an hour.

As well, in very cold conditions, the expansion and contraction that an engine will experience throughout a day of being turned on and off will cause more wear and tear than idling.

Warm food and drink make a real difference

There’s something about a warm meal or a warm cup of coffee that really lifts the spirits when working outside in the cold. Bring warm food and drink in a thermos.

If you’re a manager, make the small investments needed to facilitate the warming of food and drink on your vessels or in your

workplaces. Coffee machines, microwaves and the inverters to run them off of your battery banks are small investments with big returns in terms of staff satisfaction and productivity.

Moving air is key

I can’t tell you how many “drying rooms” I’ve seen that are just well heated, but with little airflow.

Heat is useful in drying gear, but heat and moving air is so much more effective. This can be achieved by adding fans into your drying spaces, and hanging your gear as spaced out as possible. Racks are ideal, but several hooks can be effective.

Also, it is worth your time to implement a system for drying the inside of gloves. If this is not possible, then bring gloves home to toss in the dryer. Remember, cold hands are slow hands.

Also, it is critical to vent your drying spaces so that the warm, moist air can leave, and new dryer air can enter.

Don’t underestimate ice

Ice is an absolute force of nature. It’s heavy, it’s hard and when it gets pushed around by the tide or wind, it’s incredibly destructive. Anyone who works in areas where ice forms can share several stories of its destructive power. Do NOT underestimate it. Sink or protect your gear ahead of its formation and keep a close eye on its movements.

Stay positive

This is just great advice for any farm, but especially when the weather is challenging – complaining is easy, and sometimes it takes effort to focus on the positives when you’re working outside in cold weather, but I promise you it’s worth it.

Joke around with your coworkers about body parts freezing off, talk about what you’re going to do when you get home to warm up, take a moment to appreciate just how deeply blue a cold sky can be, or the stark beauty of a windswept bay nestled within snowy hills.

Stay warm out there!

Showcase

Mowi and UCO strengthen collaboration with expanded use of ROVs for salmon welfare

Underwater Contracting (UCO), an underwater services maintenance company and Mowi, a salmon farming company, are expanding their partnership, focusing on the integration of remotely operated vehicle (ROV) technology in salmon farming.

UCO’s ‘Foover’ mortality removal systems have been used on Mowi sites as a solution that provides selective, efficient, and verifiable removal of mortalities from net pens.

This system, Mowi reports, has helped in maintaining a high level of welfare among

salmon stock, particularly in dealing with unpredictable environmental challenges such as jellyfish and algae blooms. ROVs serve as the ‘eyes and hands’ of farmers underwater, offering enhanced camera quality, advanced tooling and the ability to operate at depths that are difficult or unsafe for divers.

“UCO is proud to provide solutions that solve subsurface challenges not only in aquaculture but also across industries such as renewable energy, oil and gas, and environmental surveying. Our research and development efforts, all based in Scotland, are key to delivering practical, useable solutions that enhance our customers’ operations,” said Michael Bower, managing director at UCO.

This collaboration will see a 40 per cent expansion in the number of ROVs taken by Mowi for use on its sites.

The next stage of these companies’ partnership will focus on further enhancing the Foover system, and developing capabilities for monitoring and removing surface dying fish. As part of this innovation, UCO and Mowi aim to provide farmers with a reliable system that can humanely euthanize the small number of fish

that are injured or in poor health.

“Fish welfare is one of the most important concerns in modern aquaculture. By combining our expertise with Mowi’s industry-leading practices, we believe we can develop solutions that set new benchmarks for fish welfare,” said Jamie Smith, business development manager at UCO.

Maine Ocean Farms adopts electric workboats for oyster farming

An oyster cultivating company, Maine Ocean Farms is enhancing its operations with custom-built electric workboats and Aqua superPower’s marine fast charging technology, setting a new standard for environmentally friendly oyster farming.

The company was able to bring this project

Megan Sorby, Pine Island Redfish

to life with a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, plus another $500,000 in matching funds. The initiative is a milestone for the farm and signals a new era of eco-conscious aquaculture that could set a precedent for the industry nationwide.

Aqua superPower leads this electrification project, in partnership with Maine Clean Communities. Fogg’s Boatwoks in North Yarmouth, Maine, will design and build the custom workboat, featuring an electric powertrain from marine tech company, Vita Power.

“Maine Ocean Farms strives to continuously innovate our operations, embracing new technologies that can drive positive environmental change while supporting local economic growth,” Willy Leathers, director of farm operations and founding partner of Maine Ocean Farms said, “This project will demonstrate these technologies in action, providing data and real-time experience to other farmers and industry members.

A press release from Maine Ocean Farms states that many oyster farming operations currently rely on workboats, generators,

pumps, and processing equipment powered by gasoline.

Fogg’s Boatworks is promoted to be aluminum alloy boats that feature classic design, smooth, efficient ride, and lasting durability. Vita Power will design and manufacture the electric powertrain with a suitable battery size and power output for the new fleet vessel. Aqua superPower will install two DC marine fast charging stations.

The addition of electric workboats and Aqua superPower’s charging infrastructure will cut the operation’s carbon footprint, and minimize noise, air, and water pollution, leading to healthier marine ecosystems and improved water quality.

Scott Canning, Vice President of US Business Development for Aqua superPower first heard about Maine Ocean Farms when he learned the oyster farm co-developed a 100% compostable and biodegradable harvest bag to reduce marine plastic pollution.

“Electric propulsion makes the seafood supply chain more resilient and sustainable. However electric boats must be supported with a robust and reliable charging infrastructure,

that’s Aqua’s part of the equation,” said Scott Canning, vice president of U.S. Business Development for Aqua superPower.

“This project will demonstrate the viability of electric marine technology for the aquaculture industry. We expect it to serve as a model that can be replicated by other coastal operations, helping to build a more sustainable and resilient marine economy in Maine,” said Sara MillsKnapp, director of Maine Clean Communities.

The team will gather real-time data to measure environmental and emissions reductions. They will select the ideal system to transition vessels from ICE to electric. This project aims to showcase these technologies in action, providing a blueprint for other farmers and live data on their benefits.

Ace Aquatec and Piszolla partner to debut new humane trout stunner

Aquaculture technology company, Ace Aquatec, have sealed a deal with trout farmer, Piszolla, to install the company’s first stunning system.

Ace Aquatec’s Humane Stunner Universal

Aquaculture 2025

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(A-HSU®) will be used at Piszolla’s pond farm in Alba de Tormes, Salamanca, marking its debut in Spain.

Piszolla was acquired by Aqualande in 2018 and produces about 5,000 tonnes of trout per year which are supplied to markets across Europe. It also provides smoked trout to supermarket chains.

“The installation of Ace Aquatec’s trout stunner will enable us not only to streamline our operations but also to break new ground for animal welfare standards in Spain. We aspire to be pioneers of humane harvesting

standards in this region, and this technology is set to have a huge impact for us in terms of generating high-quality, high-welfare and sustainable products for consumers globally,” said Julio Hernandez, regional manager at Piszolla.

Ace Aquatec stated in a press release, that the installation reflects a growing trend towards higher standards of welfare in Spain and the Mediterranean region. Its device stuns fish unconscious in less than a second, minimizing handling requirements and reducing stress for the fish.

“Piszolla’s steadfast commitment to enhancing welfare standards in their Spanish site closely aligns with our ethos of providing humane and sustainable aquaculture solutions, and we’re excited to be helping them to pave the way towards humane slaughter in Spain. Julio leads a forward-thinking, progressively minded team who are at the forefront of change in the region, and we’re looking forward to seeing where this new partnership will lead us,” said Tara McGregor-Woodhams, chief sales and marketing officer at Ace Aquatec.

Aquaculture

Stewardship Council ranks highest in aquaculture certification benchmark report for 2023

Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) has received the highest rank in Aquatic Life Institute’s (ALI) third edition of the aquaculture certification benchmark report. This report analyzes current welfare requirements within the primary farming standards of global seafood certification schemes and an international ratings agency.

This year’s benchmark includes eight global seafood certification schemes and one international ratings agency, which, collectively, cover billions of individual aquatic animals annually.

These certification schemes – Global Animal Partnership (GAP), Friend of the Sea, GLOBALG.A.P., Global Seafood Alliance’s Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP), RSPCA Assured, Naturland Organic, ASC, Soil Association Organic, and Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch – are evaluated on water quality, stocking density and space requirements, environmental enrichment, feed composition, stunning and slaughter, neglected species prohibitions, as

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well as additional considerations.

ASC, with a score of 8 out of 10, was rated based on the draft of their upcoming farm standard and received full points for water quality, space requirements, stocking density, and stunning and slaughter.

“Aquaculture Stewardship Council is happy to take the leading position among all aquaculture certifications, standards and ratings benchmarked by Aquatic Life Institute (ALI) for the second year in a row. This proves ASC’s commitment towards the improvement of fish welfare through rigorous monitoring and evaluation requirements for seafood farms and key welfare indicators,” said Maria Filipa Castanheira, ASC fish health and welfare standards manager.

The Aquaculture Certification Schemes Benchmark is part of ALI’s work to help encourage progressive development related to animal welfare standards in aquaculture. It will be a tool to make informed choices about sourcing from the certifiers that lead in aquatic animal welfare.

ASC and Soil Association Organic joined RSPCA and Friend of the Sea in prohibiting the

certification of any form of octopus or cephalopod farming. Banning octopus farming, as done in recent laws in California and Washington, is important because of the serious concerns about raising these intelligent and solitary animals. Their complex needs can’t be met in intensive farming systems.

“Aquatic Life Institute’s Benchmark plays a critical role in holding the industry accountable. This independent analysis highlights both progress and gaps, encouraging certifiers to elevate their standards that protect the health of aquatic animals and prioritize positive welfare for these individuals, all of which minimize the negative environmental impacts of aquaculture,” said Tessa Gonzalez, head of research at ALI.

“Goldfinger

– The History of Mowi” is now available in English

Aslak Berge’s book, “Goldfinger – The History of Mowi,” has been released in English.

The book was first released in Norwegian earlier in 2024 and provides an account of the evolution of Mowi, one of the largest salmon producers in the world.

The 500-page book summarizes 20 years of research and presents a detailed look into the inner workings of the company.

It tells the story of Mowi’s rise from its early days in the 1960s, when industrial companies like Unilever and Hydro were key players in the growing salmon farming industry, to its current status as a multinational corporation. The major milestones in the development of industrialized salmon farming were also covered, with interviews with industry leaders such as Ole-Eirik Lerøy, Alf-Helge Aarskog, Atle Eide, Ivan Vindheim, Wout Dekker, and Steve Bracken.

Readers have said the book brings them directly into Mowi’s boardrooms and sheds light on key historical developments. Firdaposten, which awarded the book a five out of six, called it “a Norwegian classic thriller à la West Wing or Succession.”

Goldfinger delves into Mowi’s strategic evaluations, including its exploration of ownership models and its attempts to acquire Cermaq and AquaChile. The book considers the future of salmon farming and debates whether it will be driven by open or closed pens, coastal or offshore operations, or land-based systems.

Viewpoint

BY IAN ROBERTS

Ian Roberts is a public relations expert with over 30 years experience in the salmon aquaculture sector in Canada and Scotland. He is host of the

Salmon farming unfiltered

Exposure to an unfiltered conversation about salmon farming is pretty rare nowadays. Most “discussions” on the topic are carefully crafted by an aquaculture proponent or critic, or filtered through the lens of a journalist who is working with a tight deadline, or manufactured by a documentarian who is keen to push a particular agenda.

So good on Aquaculture North America for seizing the opportunity to create a safe space that enables an open, unfiltered discussion about salmon aquaculture. No rules, no strings, no agenda – a podcast titled “Salmon Farming: Inside & Out” that began production in February 2023. At the time of this article, twentyone easily digestible episodes have been recorded.

Topics explored so far span the gamut of what have been leading the salmon headlines over the past decade and include climate change, nutrition, fish health, careers, Indigenous reconciliation, and landbased technology.

Material experts have been very keen to share their perspectives regarding their areas of interest and have included a chef, social media influencer, fish pathologist, ecologist, nutritionist, farmer, and journalist.

The podcast has also ventured outside North America to speak with other salmon production countries. Experts in Chile, Australia, Norway, and the United Kingdom have shared their own unique opportunities and challenges. These discussions have highlighted regional differences and identified the many similarities.

A unique feature in 2024 is the introduction of a new segment in which young professionals propose a question to our international guests. To hear these young women and men express their passion for aquaculture can only leave the listener with

Check out our most popular episodes!

Jennifer Woodland: Prioritizing the future of B.C. salmon farming

Dr. Stefanie Colombo: Debunking nutritional myths of farmed salmon

Dr. Gary Marty: The fish doctor

Tim Kennedy: The national voice

Steve Atkinson: Pioneer in land-based salmon farming

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confidence that the future of food production is in very good hands.

Probably not surprising to many, download statistics show the top three most streamed episodes mirror the topics we often read in the headlines: fish health, product nutrition, and land-based aquaculture.

Also likely not a surprise to those of us involved in salmon farming is the theme that seems to span most episodes: public relations and social license. Many guests have expressed a concern that important discussions about aquaculture are not being fairly represented in influential mediums, like mainstream media, documentaries, and social media.

As we all know, public discourse drives government policy and recent political decisions in the Pacific Northwest that unfortunately aim to eradicate ocean-based salmon aquaculture, threatens the livelihoods of thousands of families and many fragile coastal communities that have witnessed salmon farming to be a literal lifesaver.

Of course, our podcast must also walk the talk and look to strike a

balance in the narrative. True to this, we have invited organizations who have been publicly outspoken against the salmon aquaculture sector, specifically in British Columbia. The David Suzuki Foundation, the Pacific Salmon Foundation, and Wild First Canada have all declined our invitation to participate. We continue to seek a respected and influential critical voice that is willing to share their perspective whilst remaining open to challenge.

While this modest podcast may not have near the exposure of the likes of Netflix et al., we certainly hope it can serve as a repository of important information about salmon farming communicated by material experts.

Perhaps a politician looking outside their own interest of self-preservation may find time to listen and learn from the experts, rather than base important decisions on clickbait headlines.

You can find the podcast series online at Aquaculture North America or wherever you get your podcasts. Please listen, like, and share.

“Salmon Farming: Inside & Out” podcast with Aquaculture North America