Project description
New way to farm wild-like fish
Aquaculture provides the planet with about half of all the fish we eat and one of the fastest growing food sectors. The EU-funded SUBFISH project is developing a sustainable offshore aquaculture solution to deliver wild-like fish. Natural habitat conditions of local fish living and feeding on or near the bottom of the seas will be maintained from hatchery to dispatch. The fish will grow in an offshore farm secured to the seabed, with 20 % reduced mortality and using up to 90 % less drugs to control fish disease outbreaks. SUBFISH will commercialise its products from 2022 onwards, expecting to sell at least 12 systems, licensing the rights to use its technology and the SUBFISH brand.
Objective
53% of the global fish still relies on wild-fishing with the well-known environmental side effects. Aquaculture is the most promising option to mitigate overfishing and meet the increasing demand for protein. Boosting European aquaculture to increase our self-sufficiency (only 25.4% in 2015 mainly based on wild catch, 74.6% was imported) and reduce the fish stocks fished beyond biological sustainability, requires measures such as moving further offshore and farming of new species without placing unacceptable demands on the ecosystems.
At Marine Garden AS (Norway) we found inspiration in nature to design SUBFISH: new sustainable offshore aquaculture to deliver wild-like and premium fish. SUBFISH covers from hatchery to dispatch and fish grow in an offshore farm secured to the seabed keeping natural habitat conditions of local fish living and feeding on or near the bottom of seas. Our design respects nature instead of going against it, enables our farm circumvents most harsh constrictions faced by aquaculture today while scaling more than any other (1,200,00m3). SUBFISH stock density is kept x20 lower than current intensive exploitations, with 20% of reduced mortality using 80-90% less drugs to control fish disease outbreaks. All these benefits are achieved without occupying any coastal space and at x10 lower capex.
By 2024, we expect to sell at least 12 SUBFISH systems licensing the rights to use our technology and brand across our targeted European countries, beside to sell about 240 tons of Coral Grouper across the European and Asian markets. Producing more of our seafood in European waters means that consumers will have local, safe, and sustainable choices. Moreover, SUBFISH also helps diversify the fish markets with valuable species not exploited yet or that will no longer support wild captures. Thus, by commercializing SUBFISH and its products from 2022 onwards, we will generate €70.6 million of cumulative revenues (ROI 9.08) and a total of 43 new jobs
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinator
0158 OSLO
Norway
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.