Attendees at RASCHTECH 2024, held in June of last year in Charlotte, North Carolina, the U.S.
Photo: Jean Ko Din / RASCHTECH.
RASTECH, the international conference and trade fair that serves owners and operators of Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) technology, will hold its 2025 edition June 9-10 in San Diego, California. This is the first time the event will be held on the West Coast of the United States.
From fingerling rearing to the production of commercial harvest-sized fish, to the increasingly popular post-smolt - growing larger smolt - RAS technology continues to lead the expansion of the global land-based aquaculture industry, and events such as RASTECH 2025 provide a platform where RAS technicians can learn about the industry's latest technologies from leading companies.
"As demand in the aquaculture industry expands, we are proud to host our signature event, RASTECH 2025. RASTECH brings together the brightest minds in the industry—innovators, experts, and businesses—to share ideas, make connections, and have real conversations about the latest breakthroughs and what's next for the future of RAS technology," said Anne Beswick, group publisher of the organizer, RAStech.
In the same vein, fellow RAStech associate editor Jeremy Thain noted that RASTECH 2025 is shaping up to be another "excellent networking event" for the land-based aquaculture industry. "It's great to see a resurgence of investment in the sector as well," he added.
As usual at this unmissable event for the land-based aquaculture industry, RASTECH 2025 will address key topics in the fields of business, research, technology, and biology. This year's edition will kick off with a keynote on "Big or small? Finding the right size for profitability," a discussion on exploring models for profitability at different production scales.
Yosuke Kurihara from ARK Inc., Sara Rademaker of American Unagi, and Thorsten Vammen from FREA will be the speakers of this keynote about one of the issues that most concerns the industry, especially in the U.S., where the size of future land-based fish farms has been the subject of discussion when it comes to permitting.
Following the kick-off and divided into morning and afternoon sessions over the two days of the event, the rest of the presentations will be organized around three main themes: business, biology, and technology. New this year will be a roundtable discussion led by the Aquaculture Engineering Society, which will start the second day.
The Business section of the first day will include presentations entitled "De-risking through design" and "Community development," with the participation of such well-known companies as PR Aqua, Stolt Sea Farm, Octaform, and Pine Island Redfish, among others. On the second day, the morning Business session will be dedicated to "New projects," while the afternoon session will be an "Investors' forum," where Peritus Capital, Three-Sixty Aquaculture Ltd., and, again, Stolt Sea Farm have already confirmed their participation.
As for the Biology section, the first day's presentations will be devoted to "Genetics & broodstock" in the morning, and "Fish performance & health management" in the afternoon, and will feature companies such as SalmoGen, Benchmark Genetics, Troutlodge, or Skretting. The following day, the morning lecture will focus on "Waste & sludge management," with speakers such as Megan Sorby from Pine Island Redfish or Sara Rademaker, from American Unagi, as well as others such as Todd Deligan, from Salmon Evolution, while the afternoon lecture will focus on "Regulations & certifications," with the participation of companies such as Pro Aquaculture Inc., but also institutions such as the U.S. National Aquaculture Association, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or the California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife.
Finally, in the Technology section, the first day the presentations will focus on "RAS hatcheries," with the participation of, among others, companies such as InWater Technologies, McMillen or Innovasea, which will repeat in the afternoon together with UltraAqua, EMO3, Virginia Tech, and Aquatic Equipment & Design to talk about "Water quality." The second day's morning talk will be on "Energy efficiency," featuring Full Spectrum Aquaculture, The Haskell Company, the University of Miami, and, again, Innovasea. The afternoon talk, which will close the event, will feature speakers from Freshwater Institute, University of Maryland, Atlantic Sapphire, Hudson Valley Fish Farms, and Baader, and will be on "Finishing Systems."
The full program is available - and is being updated - on the RASTECH 2025 website. The event will be held at the Town & Country Resort, 500 Hotel Circle North, San Diego, CA, USA. Exhibitor space is already sold out, and the number of attendees is limited to 350, but those interested in attending are still in time to register.
