Regenerative Aquaculture – Investing in regenerative agriculture

John Holmyard – Lowest carbon protein aka mussels: it’s food, not a high tech unicorn

22nd November 2024 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with John Holmyard, founder and managing director of Offshore Shellfish, 21st century mussel farming: guilt-free food that helps regenerate marine biodiversity and captures carbon. We talk about protein. With a growing population, we need more and more of it. So, what is the lowest impact and positive impact protein source we can grow? A deep dive into the largest offshore mussel farm in Europe, where they grow large amounts of mussels by grazing large number of plankton that naturally flows by. And, in case you are wondering, there is so much plankton around because we depleted most of the fish stocks that used to eat a lot of it.

We learn all about how to build the largest mussel farm in the UK and how to deal with regulators who have no idea what shellfish farming even means (they think you hunt mussels in the wild). We explore why mussels are such a potential crop to grow, and they can even restore natural mussel reefs, which used to be present all around the North Sea until we started bottom-trawling. And why are politics fundamental to the business when all of your crop goes fresh to mainland Europe?

Aaron Huang – How ranching (and eating) of millions of zombie sea urchins could restore the massive kelp forests of the U.S. Pacific West Coast

25th October 2024 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with Aaron Huang, founder of OoNee Sea Urchin Ranch, to dive into the world of sea urchin ranching and its connections to high-end fish restaurants, many of which fly their sea urchins in from Japan. Over the past decade, a warm water blob off the U.S. West Coast has caused sea urchins to overgraze the kelp forests, leading to a massive population boom of urchins, the collapse of kelp ecosystems, and the rise of countless “zombie” sea urchins—urchins that prevent the kelp from regrowing without dying themselves.

Why should we care? Because this phenomenon is happening everywhere—whether it’s invasive species or extreme weather events, ecosystems are collapsing, and without smart intervention, they won’t recover. In this case, the solution is to harvest the sea urchins threatening the remaining kelp, fatten them up, and sell them to the growing market for high-end seafood. What can we learn from this approach and apply to other ecosystems that are out of balance?

Yanik Nyberg – Are saltwater plants grown on tens of millions ha of abandoned, drained salt marshes going to be the livestock feed of the future?

11th October 2024 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with Yanik Nyberg, co-founder of Nara Climate and Sea Water Solutions, about feed for aquaculture and on-land livestock, salinity—when soils get saltier. Millions of hectares of former soil marshes close to the coast have been drained over the last thousands of years and often farmed, slowly but surely because of rising seawater levels. Soil water is creeping back in, and traditional farming is getting impossible. What do we do with these millions of hectares? One way is to rewet them and grow salt-loving plants called halophytes. These plants are also great feedstock for the aquaculture industry and poultry to replace the massive negative impact of soy.

So, what is holding back the large feed companies from incorporating this novel but originally the feedstock of many fish into their mixes? Interestingly enough, most of the world’s deserts are getting saltier too. Because of extreme rain, yes, it rains in the desert every now and then, which leads to flash floods. Millions of livestock pastoralists and their animals are suffering because of drought and floods, and the salts make their grass-based pastures disappear. Could the magical salt-loving halyphoates also be grown in the desert and feed these animals?

Alf Gøran Knutsen – The good, bad opportunities of the multi million dollar salmon industry, from shooting lasers under water to feed

6th August 2024 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

Salmon: there isn’t a more contagious topic within aquaculture than salmon farming. With Alf Gøran Knutsen, CEO of Kvaroy, a leader in the world of sustainable salmon farming, we discuss the opportunities to grow a potentially very sustainable source of protein and omega-3 in a way that makes sense. We explore the fascinating world of salmon, mostly open-net pen aquaculture in the ocean in Norway, but also hybrid flow-through models. We discuss biology and technology, feeds- from using wild fish which we could eat like anchovies from Chile to soy from questionable sources in the ex Amazon- and the crazy developments in this very young industry. We also discuss AI and how lasers are shooting sea lice from salmon underwater.

Salmon farming is the biggest success story in aquaculture, at least in the global north, but it is also full of huge challenges like pollution. Picture salmon feces floating out of a net pen, sea lice, and all the chemical solutions used to combat these parasites.

Sowmya Balendiran – How to turn seaweed farming into an industry? Start by farming 1000 football fields of tropical seaweed in Indonesia

23rd July 2024 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with Sowmya Balendiran, co-founder and chief business officer at Sea6 Energy, about regenerative aquaculture, how to restore the oceans and use them more to reduce the pressure on land systems, get fossil fuel use down drastically, like in fertiliser, plastics, and in food of course.

Sowmya is one of the pioneers who helped create the first signs of a tropical seaweed industry. What do you do if you have to invent both sides of the business? How do you grow seaweed industrially at scale and price points that make sense? And how do you process seaweed into products that sell for an interesting enough margin?

Someone will soon mention seaweed. It sounds magical, some species grow super fast, you can harvest them year-round, they don’t need any inputs, don’t need land but sea, which we have a lot of, etc. So, why hasn’t seaweed taken over the world yet? What is needed to industrially farm tropical seaweed? Industrial might sound like what we don’t want, but in tropical seaweed, most work is done by hand, standing knee-deep or neck-deep in the water. We can agree that that won’t scale and get us to a seaweed industry that can replace large amounts of fossil fuels.

Georg Baunach – More than half of the fish you eat is farmed: basics, potential and risks of investing in aquaculture

18th June 2024 koenvanseijen 0 Comments

A conversation with Georg Baunach, managing partner and co-founder of Hatch Blue, a knowledge-driven aquaculture and alternative seafood specialist. We discuss what aquaculture is and why it is important; what, where, and how to farm; what are the potential and challenges of regenerative aquaculture, and why is it important to look into it. We end with the risks and challenges of aquaculture, the feed conversion ratio and why it is important, the role of algae, waste, medicines, microplastics, and more.