I - A new approach to farmed fish
Finfish production plays a vital role at the heart of the EU’s aquaculture sector, contributing a significant share of the EU’s annual aquaculture yield. As the sector continues to grow, there is an opportunity to further enhance fish health and farming practices, particularly in environments where stock can be more vulnerable to disease. This is driving innovation across finfish farming, with increasing efforts to reduce reliance on antibiotics and develop more sustainable approaches that support animal health, protect the environment and respond to food safety and antimicrobial resistance concerns. The Cure4Aqua and IGNITION projects are helping to wean finfish production off antibiotics. Both shift the focus away from reactive disease treatment and towards disease prevention. Not only are these projects developing bio-based alternatives to antibiotics, they are also using selective breeding and new diagnostic technologies to prevent outbreaks and ensure a healthier, more sustainable approach to finfish production.
A protein shake-up in aquaculture
Growing finfish also require a lot of feed. Today’s feed ingredients are largely derived from fishing industry by-catch and soy, protein sources that are linked, in some cases, to overfishing and deforestation respectively. Interest in sustainable alternative ingredients is increasing. The AquaPekilo project proposes aquaculture feed made from fungi, while the InnovaFeed project explores the potential of farmed insects. Both show there is promise in alternative proteins that offer similar nutritional benefits to traditional feed ingredients but at a lower economic and environmental cost.
Leveraging the potential of organic aquaculture
While disease prevention and alternative feeds are two pieces of aquaculture’s sustainability puzzle, organic finfish farming has the potential to fit these pieces together. Helping to put this potential into practice are the projects EUAqua.Org and SelectOrganic. Dedicated to enhancing the organic farming of such finfish species as Atlantic salmon, European sea bass and rainbow trout, the two projects are developing a portfolio of digital solutions, reproduction technologies and selective breeding programmes to increase the production of organic aquaculture in Europe.
Future-proofing finfish production
While finfish production has always been at the heart of Europe’s aquaculture success, making this production more sustainable is the key to future-proofing the sector against the challenges ahead. Thanks to the innovative solutions being developed by the projects highlighted in this chapter, that future is starting to look both resilient and bright.