Tag: fish

Mike Velings – VC & PE won’t deliver regeneration — €250M evergreen proves it

22nd April 2025 koenvanseijen Regenerative Aquaculture 0 Comments

A conversation with Mike Veilings, co-founder of Aqua-Spark, a global investment fund for sustainable aquaculture, about how an invite he should have never received lead to the creation of the largest aquaculture fund in history, with over $250 million in assets under management (AUM) and ambitious plans to grow to $2 billion or more. This conversation goes beyond the billion dollar question—it’s already been answered. We explore why focusing on long- term investments is essential for transforming an industry and why current venture capital and private equity fund models might cause more harm than good. How can we bring institutional investors into agriculture and food, and what financial mechanisms can facilitate this? We also dive into the key drivers in aquaculture and discover why Mike is so enthusiastic about the future.
This episode is special—it’s not every day we discuss billions and institutional investment strategies with someone who has a real chance to raise the funds and put them to work.

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

22nd November 2024 koenvanseijen Regenerative Aquaculture 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?

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

18th June 2024 koenvanseijen Regenerative Aquaculture 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.

James Arthur Smith – Regenerative aquaculture is more healthy for you and the planet than wild caught fish

25th October 2022 koenvanseijen Diet Change, Nutrient Dense Food, Regenerative Agriculture, Short Food Webs 1 Comment

James Arthur Smith, founder of Seatopia, pioneering Regenerative Aquaculture for the Direct-To-Consumer Markets, shares about aquaculture, the challenges with unsustainable feed, concentrated pollution, commodified markets and more.

Neal Spackman – From growing trees in the Saudi Arabian desert to restoring degraded coastal lands

4th October 2022 koenvanseijen Ecosystem Services Payments, Landscape Design 2.0, Landscape Tech, Ownership, Regenerative Agriculture 0 Comments

Neal Spackman, founder of Regenerative Resources Co, joins us to talk about transforming millions of acres of degraded landscapes into productive ecologies, using seawater to raise fish, using the wastewater to restore mangroves and growing saltwater species which in turn produce most of the feed for the shrimps.