FutureEUAqua – FUTURE GROWTH IN SUSTAINABLE, RESILIENT AND CLIMATE FRIENDLY ORGANIC AND CONVENTIONAL EUROPEAN AQUACULTURE

by Åsa Maria Espmark

Presented at AE2019 conference in Berlin, Germany 2019

European aquaculture production has reached 1.25 million tonnes of seafood annually, with a value of over 4 billion euro. Of this amount, 4% is certified as organic, amounting in 2015 to a total of approximately 50,000 tonnes (EUMOFA, 2017). In 2015, EU consumers spent 54 billion euro for buying fisheries and aquaculture products, reaching the highest amount ever recorded (EUMOFA, 2017). Nevertheless, Europe is still heavily dependent on external markets to cover this demand. The increased demand for aquaculture products has to be covered at the same time as food production need to be more sustainable, climate friendly and supporting the UN Sustainable goals. The newly started EU project FutureEUAqua aims to effectively promote sustainable growth in aquaculture that is resilient to climate changes, and environmental friendly organic and conventional aquaculture of major fish species in Europe. It is a well-documented assumption that aquaculture that will meet future challenges with respect to the growing consumer demand for high quality, nutritious and responsibly produced food. FutureEUAqua will promote innovations in the whole value chain, including genetic selection, ingredients and feeds, non-invasive monitoring technologies, innovative fish products and packaging methods, optimal production systems such as IMTA and RAS, taking into account socioeconomic considerations by the participation of a wide spectrum of stakeholders, training and dissemination activities. To achieve these ambiguous goals, 32 partners from R&D, industry and associations, originating from nine countries will collaborate in research, training, dissemination and contact with stakeholders through e.g. stakeholder events. FutureEUAqua will contribute with innovations that will arrive Technology readiness level (TRL) ranging from five to nine. Innovations will result from all research topics, including sustainable genotypes, feeds and farming management solutions; smart tools to monitor the farming environment that guarantee aquatic animal health and welfare, tailor-made aquaculture fresh/processed foods and packaging, IT tools and information packages to improve consumer’s awareness about aquaculture products and related markets.

 The results and innovations will have impacts by improving resilience and sustainability of aquaculture farming systems and practices. The results will have impact on a diversity of end users representing the whole value chain from breeding companies to processing plants and intelligent packaging, including e.g. digital farming solutions for improved animal health and welfare, retailers and customer care providers. We intend to gather stakeholders to contribute to the professional skills and competences of those working and being trained to work within the blue economy and support the implementation of the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) and contribute to policymaking in research, innovation and technology.

POWER CALCULATIONS FOR OPTIMISATION OF THE EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN TO DETECT G X E: SALMON EXPERIMENTS IN FUTUREEUAQUA

by A. Kettunen and M. Lillehammer

Presented at AE2019 conference in Berlin, Germany 2019

Introduction
The objective of the WP1 in FutureEUAqua is to assess how the current breeding programmes for salmon, seabass, seabream and rainbow trout can respond to future demands for novel feed compositions, and to make further improvements to disease resistance, climate resilience and animal welfare. For Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) we estimate the genotype by diet/climate interactions (GxE) in semi-commercial salmon production system and validate best selection methods in salmon breeding programs by comparing traditional BLUP selection with GS/MAS for production and robustness traits. Estimated correlations will be taken as indicators of the magnitude of re-ranking of genotypes across diets/environments. Power calculations are elementary part of the experimental design but unfortunately often de-prioritized, compromising the critical interpretation of the results. A priori power calculations of genetic studies are characterized with multiple uncertainties, such as true relationship structure, number of families and individuals at the time of registration and unknown heritability of the traits of interest. This said, we argue that by performing a range of power calculations it is possible to frame the true power of the experiment and improve the probability of executing scientifically solid experiments with given restrictions of resources. We demonstrate the optimisation of the experimental design in order to have adequate power to detect significant GxE (diet/climate aggregate) given FutureEUAqua WP1 resources. Read more on page 681 here…

THE ROLE OF INTERNET OF THINGS FOR HEALTHY FISH AND ENVIRONMENT IN THE EUROPEAN AQUACULTURE

Giuseppe Lembo*, Pierluigi Carbonara, Sebastien Alfonso, Walter Zupa, Maria Teresa Spedicato

Presented at the AE2019 conference in Berlin, Germany 2019

Introduction

The overall objective of the project FutureEUAqua is to promote sustainable growth of environmental friendly organic and conventional aquaculture to meet future challenges of the growing consumer demand for high quality, nutritious and responsibly produced food. In WP5 of the FutureEUAqua project we are committed to develop and test a multiplatform tracking system for simultaneously monitoring the activity and physiology of fish, as well as the main parameters of the environment where they are farmed, by using a wireless communication system. The study of aquatic animals (e.g. fish behaviour, condition, physiology) and the farming environment presents unique challenges to scientists because of the physical characteristics of water. However, scientific studies and efforts have increasingly turned to the use of electronic sensors, which have enhanced our knowledge on the performances of the farmed fish and the impacts on the surrounding aquatic system. In their most basic form, electronic sensors and tags may include radio or acoustic beacons transmitting signals, which can bring specific codes to identify animals, and allow them to be tracked using receivers that detect the transmitted signals (Hazen et al. 2012). Basic archival tags must be, instead, physically recovered in order to obtain the data. Because the strength of radio signals rapidly attenuate in seawater, acoustic transmissions is preferred for fish tracking in marine environment (Lembo et al., 2002), while radio transmission is commonly used in freshwater environment. More advanced tags incorporate sensors that measure and record a suite of environmental and/or biological parameters of fish (Cooke et al. 2016). Simple biomass estimators and logging stations, installed on the feeding barge and/or on the cages, can give full control over all water parameters and provide the information required to monitor/expand the production. Flexible sensors systems are conceived to log oxygen, temperature, salinity, sea current, pH, wind and CO2. In addition, sensor and camera systems may provide also information for estimating the biomass in the cages and developing reliable fish feeding strategies. Indeed, electronic sensors are significantly improving our understanding of fish behaviour and are emerging as key sources of information for improving aquaculture management practices. The wireless communication system to monitor the large scale demonstration activities foreseen in the project FutureEUAqua will both facilitate effective study design and replication, increasing the accuracy of data standardization, processing and interpretation (e.g., Huveneers et al. 2016), providing industry with the information needed to facilitate health/welfare and optimal management practices. Read more here (pages 779-780)…

EFFECTS OF NOVEL INGREDIENTS ON GROWTH PERFORMANCE IN EUROPEAN SEA BASS, Dicentrarchus labrax

A. Vasilaki, K. Kousoulaki , T.A. Samuelsen , G. Pyrenis , D. Kogiannou , K. Grigorakis , E. Fountoulaki , E. Mente and I. Nengas

Presented at the AE2019 conference Berlin, Germany 2019

Introduction
Limited availability of ingredients in aquaculture feeds is crucial in order to maintain the increasing demands of aquaculture industry Gamboa‐Delgado & Márquez‐Reyes 2018). However, to safeguard sustainable exploitation of natural resources, the use of capture fisheries-based fishmeal and fish oil needs to be reduced in conventional fish feeds (Tacon & Metian, 2015). Accordingly, sources with high quality protein and essential nutrients are imperative need otherwise fish performance (Kousoulaki et al., 2012), health status and final product quality (Kousoulaki et al., 2016) may be jeopardized when substituting dietary fish meal by alternative ingredients of lower nutritional value. The main objective of this study is to test ingredients and design formulations for commercially relevant tailored-made aqua feeds, ensuring high performance, maintaining, or enhancing nutritional value and environmental friendliness. Read more here (pages 1571-1572)…

D. Dimogianopoulosa, K. Grigorakisb (2020) Effective algorithmic operational framework for fish texture evaluation in industry: Achieving maturity