On April 27, 2021, Under Current News' Matt Craze held a webinar with a group of RAS aquaculture experts from around the world, on the status of efforts to "mainstream" land based fish farms. Titled "Dissecting the land-based aquaculture trend", It seems the New Frontier is genetically engineering fish to fit the technology and new feeds, instead of improving technology to fit the fishes' needs!
Matt Craze's question to GE Fish expert John Buchanon of the Center for Aquaculture Technologies: "What's your angle on the broad challenges to Land Based Aquaculture becoming mainstream?
JB: "Could argue it's already become mainstream. Lots of discretions and investment and activity in the sector. Big commitments initially were around engineering - and it's still a major focus
"Feed obviously has to be a focus. The way the diets are formulated is quite different. It needs to be optimized for RAS food.
"Last step of the puzzle is the genetics of the fish. RAS is a very capital intensive investment. Elements are very well understood. Once you get to scale, then investment in improving the fish makes sense.
"We are approaching that point, especially for salmon, but many other species, for improvement in growth as you are moving fish through the tanks; while you're waiting for the biomass to grow. There's inefficiency there that can be recaptured with faster growing fish. Very simply.
"Obviously better SCR or the waste products from the fish that allow biofilter to support a larger biomass would be fundamentally transformative to the the industry and to profitability
"In my past I was director of R&D for Aqua Bounty. We are looking at biotech solutions to solve these problems. They can be addressed though breeding and new technologies in genome editing. RAS is also contained.
"There's a lot of benefits to really taking the next step in the industry and getting the genetics to complement both the feeds and the engineering. A good opportunity for the future."
End excerpt.
