ECOINTENSIFICATION OF AQUACULTURE: VALORIZATION OF AQUACULTURE SIDE STREAMS – AN APPROACH TO THE CIRCULAR BIOECONOMY

Aquaculture is expected to contribute to fill the foreseen gap in food supply towards 2050 and beyond. Hurdles to overcome to allow for an industrial growth of relevant scale relate to economic, environmental and social sustainability, and the solutions sought must be correspondingly multi-disciplinary.

GAIN (Green Aquaculture Intensification in Europe), a recently awarded Horizon 2020 project, aspires to deliver services and technologies to market within the project period to contribute to the ecointensification of European aquaculture production. Resource efficiency, reduced environmental impact, increased precision and valorisation throughout the production chain are all key elements in the approach to improve seafood self-sufficiency and regional stability.

As ecointensification of aquaculture warrants reduced environmental impact and thereby wild-farmed interactions, we focused on capturing side streams defined here as mortalities and wastewater. Valorisation of the resulting products provides incentive for the industry to invest in environmental technologies, augmenting resource efficiency and facilitating circular economy. We will present some of the encountered obstacles for circularity and the synergies sought through a refined holistic approach.