aquaflow by aquablurb | May 29 - Jun 11, 2023
Happy Monday fellow aqua enthusiast!
In the past two weeks, the Norwegian parliament officially approved the 25% new resource rent tax on aquaculture, equivalent to NOK 5.7 billion (USD 516 million, EUR 481 million) of tax contribution, based on current salmon prices. Shortly after the announcement, Mowi, SalMar and Grieg saw their stock prices increase, a favourable response from shareholders. Time will tell if 25% can achieve the sweet spot of value creation across coastal communities without hampering farming innovation.
Startup Spotlight
Advanced Robotics in Aquaculture
Driven by a deep curiosity to apply ground-breaking technology, and with the recent AUD 108m in Series B funding raised from KKR, Australia-based Advanced Navigation advances into underwater technologies and ocean exploration. Announced in April 2023, Advanced Navigation opens the world’s largest subsea robotics facility in Western Australia to accelerate the production of the fully autonomous underwater robot Hydrus.
Hydrus conducts undersea research, survey and exploration with simple and accessible data capturing capabilities with applications in ocean conservation and aquaculture. On aquaculture farms, Hydrus can perform regular inspections of mooring lines, anchor points and tearing of fish pens to guarantee structural integrity. The robot can also monitoring fish health by counting marine life, spotting signs of disease or searching for sea lice.
Product specs here and interview with Subsea Advanced Navigation’s Senior Product Manager Peter Baker here (P10)
🙌 Ask - Searching for testing and purchasing partners
👉 Introduce me to Advanced Navigation
Deals
🍣 Cellmeat, South Korean cell-cultured shrimp and caviar producer, securesUSD 13m Series A funding from new investors NH Venture Investment, Genting Ventures, and Daewoo Healthcare and existing investors BNK Venture Investment, Yoo Kyung PSG Asset Management and Strong Ventures
💀 Ace Aquatec, Scottish startup that produces humane slaughtering devices, secures undisclosed amount from Earth Capital Limited adding to the GBP 10m Series A raised from Aqua Spark and Chroma Ventures
Mergers & Acquisitions
🇨🇦 Viterra, Canada’s biggest pension funds, would back a potential mergervalued at USD 25 billion between Glencore Plc and Bunge Ltd
💰 Nor-Feed Holding, producer of botanical additives (recently acquired by Adisseo), becomes the sole shareholder by acquiring Nor-Feed Vietnamshares owned by NAN Group
🐟 Caviar & Caviar acquires Northern Divine Aquafarms, a Canada-based fully-integrated land-based fish farm that produces both organic white sturgeon and organic coho salmon for an undisclosed amount
💵 Goldman Sachs Asset Management acquires Norwegian wellboat operator Frøy from SalMar
💸 New York-based asset manager MidOcean Partners buys animal and fish nutrition supplier QualiTech
Grants
🇨🇦 Canada launches USD 36.6m Aquatic Invasive Species Prevention Fund(AISPF) to fight invasive species for the next 5 years
🌱 Cascadia Seaweed receives USD 1.5m funding from British Columbia Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy to accelerate the commercialisation of large-scale agrifeed and biostimulant products
💡 The 4-year Terraforming LIFE project lands EUR 6.3m EU grant to process fish sludge, dead fish, sludge from organic waste and agriculture to create valuable energy, fertiliser and biochar
🦠 Arbiom secures EUR 14m grant funding and kicks off the SYLPLANT project to build first plant in France, in collaboration with 17 partners across the entire food and feed value chain
💸 Biden administration announces USD 2.6 billion in funding for coastal resilience and fisheries support, made available through the Inflation Reduction Act
Movements
Legislation
🇳🇴 Norwegian parliament officially approves the aquaculture tax proposal at 25%
🇺🇸 US senators re-launch the Advancing the Quality and Understanding of American Aquaculture (AQUAA) Act to increase sustainable seafood offshore production in US federal waters
Feed
🐟 Loch Duart adopts BioMar’s novel low-impact salmon feed Blue Impact diet, lowering carbon footprint from feed production to under 2.0kg CO2 eq/kg
🪰 Austrian insect startup Livin Farms adopts liquid feeding system for black soldier fly larvae, as developed by WEDA
🦠 Urgent need for effective and rapid analytical methods for feed mycotoxin detection for inclusion in feed
🪰 Entosystems Inc, Canadian black soldier fly producer, inaugurated fully-automated 100,000 sq ft plant in Quebec to produce 5,000 tons of larvae per year
🔢 Benchmark Genetics develops salmon first-feeding calculator
🪰 Marubeni and Sumitomo, Japan’s largest trading companies, separately initiate partnerships with insect protein companies to sell into Japan’s aquafeed market
💩 AquaBioTech Group aims to valorise tuna side streams into aquafeed ingredients in Malta
Farming
🤝 Leveraging MMC First Process’ fish handling solutions and Apria Systems’ water treatment solutions Eloxiras, the two companies form strategic partnership to improve water quality in RAS
🤖 Aquatrade unveils WASH, an automated water surface cleaning system that removes oils, foam and debris and ensures standardized hygiene levels in farming systems
🐟 Gael Force Group advances its integrated SeaQureFarm semi-closed containment fish farming concept via contract with cover manufacturer Cunningham Covers
🦐 Atarraya builds e-commerce website to sell shrimp products produced via Indianapolis-based Shrimpboxes
💡 Akva and Cermaq signs EUR 60m RAS contract to build a 12 million smolt facility in Finnmark
🌬️ Collaboration initiated between AquaWind, EU offshore aquaculture project, and FLORA, project producing renewable energy to power oceanographic data services
Research
🇰🇪 The Fish Site columnist Proscovia Alando plans to launch the 1st comprehensive independent assessment of Kenya’s aquaculture sector
🌊 NOAA to identify Aquaculture Opportunity Areas (AOAs) in Alaska for marine invertebrates, following examples in Southern California and the Gulf of Mexico
Seaweed
🌿 Biotech startup Ecological Laboratories develops novel microbial formulation using Rhodopseudomonas and Wolinella bacteria to optimise composting and reduce stench of decomposing Sargassum seaweed
🧿 Seaweed biofiltration systems deployed off the coast of North Queensland to improve water quality flowing to the Great Barrier Reef
🇮🇪 Ireland’s state agency Bord Iascaigh Mhara’s publication Irish Macro-Algal Cultivation Strategy to 2030 sets ambitious plans to increase farmed seaweed volume in Ireland
🔥 Researchers from Swansea University and the University of Bath developsinnovative heat storage material from alginate - a non-toxic seaweed derivative
🌱 Green Aqua and Algikey partner to provide 270 tons of high-quality dry algae products to hatcheries
Notable Reads
🦪 What an Oyster Hears by Holly Haworth
Oysters don’t have auditory organs, but with small tentacles at the edge of their fleshy mantle, they are able to sense light, the salinity and temperature of the water and vibration. In this way, they “listen” to the conditions of their environment, and sense the world around them. They look like congregations of ears, huddling along the shores, in bays and estuaries, at the mouths of sluggish tidal rivers, near where people live.