Live from the Blue Food Innovation Summit

The Blue Food Innovation Summit has now come to a close in London, after an intense two days filled with networking and discussion on the future of the blue food sector.

Many thanks to everyone to followed along with WeAreAquaculture's liveblog for this year's summit - we hope to see you again in 2025!

Now we're approaching the close of another fascinating day of discussions at the Blue Food Innovation Summit, and we wrap up the event with a final session on the crucial topic of finance and investment for blue economy ventures. 

Taking the stage in this closing session are panellists Caroline Bocquel (BIM, Ireland’s Seafood Development Agency), Blaine Grimes (GMRI), Brandon Levy (Sustainable Ocean Alliance) and Luke Sawitsky (SeaAhead), moderated by Claire Pribula (The Yield Lab Asia Pacific).

Reflecting on the discussions from the last couple of days, what breakthrough innovations hold the potential to transform the sector, and where are the key areas of interest for investors?

Ocean data, says Luke Sawitsky, and new approaches to analysing and acting on the datasets collected.

Technologies to tackle the problem of fish mortalities would make a huge impact in the organic salmon farming sector, says Bocquel, including eDNA and real-time monitoring and identification of diseases.

Real-time monitoring is also identified by Brandon Levy as a key priority area for Sustainable Ocean Alliance. "We need to take an ecosystemic approach to how we collect and handle data," says Levy.

Bocquel says a key challenge is to match the opportunities with the skillbase available, and bringing innovation from other sectors into the seafood sector.

Sawitsky says he would like to see some of the resource and expertise from human health research to be addressed to animal welfare and health. Blaine Grimes says that better understanding of genetics is another game changing area for aquatic food production.

How do we get more investors into the ecosystem, and who are they?

There's often a funding gap, say Bocquel and Grimes. "There's a significant gap between impact investment and VC when people are trying to get to Series A. We have a number of companies talking to us that are looking for venture capital but aren't quite ready for prime time," Grime says.

Sawitsky agrees, saying sometimes there's a lack of investor understanding of aquaculture companies that are really biotech companies, but focused in the blue economy space.

Bocquel notes BIM's collaboration with Hatch Blue in incubating early-stage aquaculture companies, and says that in Ireland the government is aiming to plug the gap, with funding available from the Strategic Bank of Ireland. "Governments have to step into that space," she says.

One of the main highlights of the day now, as some very big names in land-based aquaculture take the stage to share their insights and experiences of new aquaculture production methods. 

We will now hear from Ohad Maiman (Aquafounders Capital – see WeAreAquaculture’s interview with him here), Vincent Erenst of The Kingfish Company), Trond Håkon Schaug-Pettersen (CEO of Salmon Evolution – see our interview with Trond here), and Ståle Økland (AKVA Group). 

"We have leaders from RAS, hybrid flow-through, and one of the leading suppliers to the aquaculture industry," says Ohad Maiman by way of introduction (it's worth noting Maiman was the former CEO of The Kingfish Company).

The two land-based CEOs are planning expansion, with The Kingfish Company working to set up land-based facilities in the US, and Salmon Evolution currently in advanced negotiations over a North American site as well as developing a project in South Korea.

"I'm often asked to pick a favourite bewteen RAS, flow-through, net pens, almost as if it's a religious matter. I think the answer is more complicated than that," says Maiman. "If you think of the global seafood demand... there's room for all of them."

What's the panellists' take on the challenges and advantages of their systems? asks Maiman.

In cage farming, you have little control over the environment you farm your fish in, says Erenst. "As you cannot control what comes in the farm, you may get disease, which is one of the Achilles heels of aquaculture."

Over the years, he says, several forms of technology have been developed to resolve the issues, including closed containment or submersible cages, farms with partial recirculation, and farms with full recirculation, where 99% of the water is cleaned with a filtration system.

"I think control helps you enable your fish to perform a lot better... If we compare our performance with net-pen farming of yellowtail in Japan... the fish do a lot better. The potential of the fish comes to the fore."

However, Capex per kilo is an issue for land-based farming, he says. The more sophisticated the system, the more expensive the Capex - but the Opex costs are similar to traditional farms, but without the same disease risk, he says.

On hybrid flow-through systems, Schaug-Pettersen says "it depends on whwere you are located". He says Salmon Evolution's location next to clean high-quality water at close-to-optimal temperature gives them an advantage.

"You don't have the same complexity and margin of error as you have in a RAS facility, where if things go wrong they happen much faster. You have a bit more leeway in a hybrid system," the Salmon Evolution CEO says.

On disadvanages, Schaug-Pettersen says the need for water limits location choices, although he notes that Norway and North America are both good locations. "A hybrid system is Capex-heavy," he says, but comparing licence costs and other factors, he says "we are almost on parity". "The relative cost of land-based has significantly improved... this should only increase going forward."

"Water quality is essential, but we also see that there's an argument for good RAS facilities, producing close to the consumer," says Ståle Økland.

"If you want to scale the technology and produce in many different parts of the world, the water quality is not as good everywhere as it is in Norway... I would also say that land-based is not only about big grow-out facilties. we are also seeing a trend now towards more post-smolt facilities," Økland adds.

What consumer trends should the industry take into account?

"I think it's important not only to look at the industry but at the mega trends," says Økland. Urbanisation, digitalisation, building awareness of how food is produced among young people, transparency, are all factors to take into consideration, he says.

"Sustainability is not something that you choose or not. Now it's licence to operate. It's not just about consumers buying the fish, it's also the voters making it possible to produce fish. I think that has to be seen together," Økland says.

"We want to be proud of what we do. Animal welfare, traceability, sustainability, they are our duty," says Erenst. In restaurants, chefs want to know what they are serving. "We believe that will trickle down further. It's also in the purchasing of some retailers... These trends, these things we try to do to grow fish in a sustainable and animal-friendly way, they ring a bell with our consumers."

"I think this will only get more and more important," agrees Schaug-Pettersen. "To a large extent the aquaculture industry is a highly-regulated industry. If you look at salmon, over the last 2-3 years there's no growth in global production, and I think the prospect for growth is limited in the short term." He says it's "extremely important" to have fish welfare high on the agenda.

What advances in technology will be useful for the different segments?

"We've just started with AI," says Økland, who says this will also support sustainability goals. "It's not just about land-based or sea-based. I think we will see a lot of new technology when it comes to seabased farming... but it's more incremental when it comes to sea-based. When it comes to AI there are possibilities we haven't even seen yet."

"On feed and genetics there's a lot to be done, but also utilising all the data you're collecting every day... seeing how everything is connected and affecting the performance of the fish," says Schaug-Pettersen, noting the "untapped potential" of data.

Erenst says "Land-based farming is a fusion of farmers and engineers. Engineers think very different from farmers, and farmers think very different from engineers." He says that having both groups having the same understanding is still "in the making".

Tech for aquaculture smallholders is becoming big business - if success stories like Indonesian aquatech “unicorn” eFishery, or India’s Aquaconnect, are anything to go by.

Panelists Jackie Alder (Senior Fisheries Specialist at The World Bank), Liris Maduningtyas (JALA), and Kamran Ahmad (Victory Group), moderated by Dan Collison (Farm Africa), will now talk about how small-scale farmers are tapping into the tech revolution to boost their operations, mitigate climate change and achieve financial stability through fintech, data platforms, farming models, monitoring devices and more.

Moderator Dan Collison points out that smallholder producers are a hugely important part of the food system, producing the majority of food globally.

Jackie Alder introduces some of the World Bank's projects in the fisheries sector. In Somalia, she says the World Bank is taking an integrated approach in working with the Somalian government on interrelated infrastructure, value chains and fisheries management, to support small-scale fishers.

"We have to build capacity for them to run a facility, to access finance, to understand savings, loans and credit... Especially women, if you give women that capacity, they will make a profit."

She also points out that micofinancing is helping smallholders in Africa, and says the same can be done for small-scale fishing.

Kamran Ahmad of Victory Group now gives insights into his work in founding Kiwu Choice in Rwanda. What technology support does he provide?

The company is a vertically integrated large-scale farming model, but it constantly engages with smallholders, says Ahmad.

"You can't enter into one piece of the value chain without affecting all the others," he says. "You have to scale up every single piece of the value chain in tandem." He says that developing feed mills and fingerling production for Victory Group also supports local smallholders.

Land is also highly fragmented in rural east Africa, he says, posing challenges to scale up. "We needed additional egg and fingerling production to scale, so we started to partner with smallholders across rural kenya" to start developing ponds on their plots, and give credits to farmers. "We're enabling improvements in income of up to 7x baselines for those farmers... we're increasing our ties to the community while enabling our core production model to thrive."

What would make a difference for small scale producers to increase and improve production?

Liris Maduningtyas says small-scale farmers in Indonesia tend to adopt technologies slower compared with bigger operations. She says that once larger farmers adopt a technology successfully, smallholders tend to follow suit. However, a number of barriers exist, including access to finance and education.

A second session on seaweed now – reflecting the importance of the growing sector. Our panel has some big names from this sector: Vincent Doumeizel (Director of the Food Programme, Lloyd’s Register Foundation), Pierre-Yves Paslier (Notpla), Benjamin Armenjon (OCEANIUM) and Patricia Estridge (Seaweed Generation). The moderator is Eugene Klerk of Standard Chartered Bank. 

Amongst other issues, the panel discusses the potential for bioplastics based on seaweed as an alternative to traditional plastics produced by the petro-chemical industry. Doumeizel says that those who say that plastic is cheaper need to rethink their stance. "Plastic is killing the ocean carbon pump", it's a question of lifecycle assessment, he says. "We should stop saying plastic is cheap, because it's costing a lot to all of us."

On sustainability vs regeneration, Doumeizel says the language we use is important. "We should stop using the word sustainability when we talk about the ocean. 50% of the ecosystem has been destroyed. We should not sustain it, we should regenerate it. I think we need to find new ways to audit compliance and verify the reliability of the supply chain," he says.

"We don't want to make the same mistakes as we did on land. The good thing about seaweed is we start from scratch. It's a challenge, we have to build everything, but it's a great opportunity. We have a blue field in front of us and we can design it the way we want, and learn from the previous generation on land to learn what went wrong," Doumeizel says.

"It's very important to monitor," says Benjamin Armenjon of OCEANIUM. "This kind of LCA [life cycle assessment] needs to be performed now, at the beginning of the value chain, at the beginning of growth.

Pierre-Yves Paslier says that in comparison with other consumer products with only a very low percentage of seaweed ingredients, "With products that are going to be made entirely or largely from seaweed, we get a disproportionate opportunity... to tell that story, we have the power of enabling those best practices," he says, adding this will hopefully drive change in other existing supply chains.

Patricia Estridge points out that ocean acidification is one of the biggest challenges facing the ocean and seaweed cultivation. Companies designing these new systems need to keep these issues in mind, she says.

Armenjon says for seaweed companies to succeed, they need to find the right niche, and not try to force the market, but instead approach it "with serenity".

Doumeizel says "seaweed is in-between" in terms of investment types, too risky for institutional investors, but too long-term for venture capitalists. "There's still a lot to be done and a lot of technolological barriers to be overcome." He says public and government support is necessary to derisk the activity, and investors need to take a long-term view. "We need to develop partnership with the east. In Asia they have a seaweed market and long experience... there's a lot of collaboration to be done."

Now we have one of the highlights of the Blue Food Innovation Summit, an “Innovation Showcase”, a pitching session for early-mid stage entrepreneurs.

The showcase is moderated by Maarten-Yan Weirenga (Nutreco) and Magali Rousselot (of French asset management company Mirova). 

The line up is as follows: Paulina Zanela (Thalasso Biotech), George Birch (Oyster Heaven), Joyeeta Das (Samudra Oceans), and Megan Sorby (Pine Island Redfish) – you can see our recent in-depth interview with Megan here! 

Oyster Heaven

First up is Oyster Heaven's George Birch, who highlights oysters' role in performing vital ecosystem services, and predicts a "huge price correction" over the next years, with oyster reefs valued for their value as water filters, carbon sinks, nursery grounds for key fish stocks, and other benefits.

The company deploys biodegradable artificial reefs pre-loaded with oyster spats to support regeneration of native oysters. Oyster Heaven is currently collaborating with Nestlé Purina (who we heard from earlier this morning) on the largest regeneration project in Europe.

Birch says that oyster reefs could have a role to play in supporting social licence to operate for salmon farmers and other finfish aquaculture, if co-located with aquaculture activities to tackle waste residues and reduce the duration of fallow periods at fishfarming sites.

Pine Island Redfish

Now it's the turn of Megan Sorby, founder of Pine Island Redfish in Florida, who says redfish is the "next great candidate in RAS", being a high value fish with a high market demand.

She points out that one of the greatest challenges in scaling RAS is the waste - the "fish poop" - and points out that current approaches to disposing of this waste this have serious problems, risking salinisation of land.

"RAS can no longer be simply a grow-seafood-anywhere solution. We must integrate our seafood production in harmony with our environment." That's what Pine Island Redfish is doing, says Megan, where waste is used to cultivate sea vegetables and regenerate native mangroves.

She points out that hers is a women-led company with a team of industry veerans on its advisory board (she doesn't mention him by name, but Ohad Maiman is their Chair), and says they looking for partners that share the same sustainable and regenerative vision.

She says their first batch of fish will be commercially available in December.

Samudra Oceans

Now comes Joyeeta Das, who explains that Samudra Oceans focuses on robotic ocean farming of seaweed. She uses a case study of one of their clients, an English seaweed farmer whose operations were previously highly unpredictable. "He was operating how land farming was 150 years ago, no automation, no data," she says.

Now utilising Samudra Oceans AI technology, she says the farmer is able to remotely monitor his seaweed farm without the need for unnecessary time spent out checking his lines on the water, unlocking liquidity to grow and scale his farm, and also significantly increase yields. If this was rolled out to other seaweed operators, it could significantly scale the industry, she says.

She explains the company founders' backgrounds are in Silicon Valley, and their vision is to develop a "one-click aquafarm", where farming operations are entirely run by robotics engineers on land. The company has been nominated for the Earthshot Prize in addition to securing a number of other accolades and grants.

Thalasso Biotech

Our final entrepreneur of the day is Paulina Zanela of Thalasso Biotech, a Mexican biotech firm which takes circular bioeconomy approach to tackle the problem of invasive sargassum seaweed. She says 40 million tonnes of this seaweed is estimated as currently drifiting in Caribbean waters.

It's a significant environmental problem, but "We believe sargassum is Caribbean gold," she says. The company uses a mobile biorefinery to extract molecular ingredients from sargassum for a variety of different applications, including alginate, fucoidin and biostimulants. The company intend to supply "white label" products to strategic partners to enable them to grow and scale quickly, rather than produce their own product line, Zanela says.

Currently Thalasso Biotech are in partnership or "advanced conversations" with a variety of multinationals including Nestlé Purina and L'Oreal . The company is currently in the process of a USD 2 milion fundraise.

At a variety of sessions yesterday, the issue of metrics and data were discussed, in terms of how to define and quantify biodiversity and ecosystems services – this was also a big theme in the final session of the day on ocean impact investing. 

This will also be one of the main areas in focus for our panel during this session: Rene Benguerel (Blueyou Group) Jan Erik Saugestad (Storebrand Asset Management), Kat Bruce (Founder, NatureMetrics), Dane Klinger (Conservation Inernational Ventures), and Francois Mosnier (Planet Tracker). The moderator is Valerie Pinkerton (Pollination).

Why has biodiversity been neglected as an investment opportunity by institutional investors? asks the moderator

"Access to capital is always tough, but that doesnt mean that institutional investors are not engaged," says Jan Erik Saugestad. He points out investment groups like Nature 2000, and 70 institutional investors that have signed up to the sustainable blue economy principles, including Storebrand Asset Mgt.

"We provide capital typically to private equity specialists... but the most sizeable part of our investments is to existing companies. We try to engage and challenge with these companies: how do they structure their value chain, what is the traceability of their input, how can they understand their impact?" he says.

"The more you know, the more crazy it is that biodiversity has been left out of blue economy discussions," says Kat Bruce.

"Biodiversity has been talked about as a co-benefit. Fundamentally, we're asking natural systems to provide us with services... in order for those systems to deliver those benefits they need to be healthy and functioning. We need to completely flip that narrative: we're investing in biodiversity and we get carbon benefits and food benefits."

She points out that most businesses' impact on biodiversity is through their supply chain. "My concern is that we're going to get lost in the intricacies of how we do the disclosures and the reporting, and too little on what's happening on the ground. That's where data comes in."

Key bottlenecks for future growth, and how to transition to nature-positive seafood production methods?

"I believe that restorative aquaculture is the true potential of blue food as the protein source for a growing world population," says Rene Benguerel, particularly low-trophic species like bivalve molluscs.

"These are natural food systems completely embedded in the natural envrionment," he says, arguing that they not only provide livelihoods for farmers and communities, but the farmers don't depend on global supply chains for their production, with no need for aquafeed.

"In the food industry, we need to look for future systems where food is harvested within the safe operating zone of our planet," Benguerel argues. "Of course we cannot feed the world with farmed mussels alone, but we could farm 30 times more bivalve molluscs within the planteray boundaries, that would add more than 350 million tonnes of additional seafood to the palnet", without using any additional resources.

"For most investors, seafood is seen as a tiny sector with plenty of issues, both aquaculture and fishing," says Francois Mosnier. "My role at PlanetTracker is to convince investors that they should care about nature and oceans... Once this mindset change happens, the conclusions come by themselves. To have a sustainable blue economy you need traceability... you need monitoring... regenerative aquaculture is key. There won't be enough seafood by 2050 unless there's a massive investment in bivalves and seaweed." He points out that the capex in these species is much lower risk.

While the transition will cost money, Mosnier says it will overall deliver net financial benefits: "Every CFO and their team has a business reason to invest in the restorative economy".

Building trust between investors and restorative projects

Bruce points out that a lack of shared language between investment companies and ecologists working on the ground can make a barrier for investment and collaboration - and she says that scientific data is the key to briding that divide.

"Awareness-raising and storytelling is so vital... In the ocean we have such an opportunity for win-wins but our system at the moment is pushing us towards lose-lose," she says. Bruce is about to participate in an awareness-raising expedition around the UK coast, Sea Change Row, together with other women working in nature, climate and corporate responsibility.

Now putting ocean restoration solutions under the spotlight, this session will feature panelists Ari Greenberg (SeaForester), Wietse Van Der Werf (Sea Ranger Service), and Kerstin Schmeiduch (Nestlé Purina PetCare), moderated by Hilary Roberts (The Earthshot Prize).

It's worth noting that Nestlé Purina has recently invested a hefty sum in this area, as part of the Ocean 14 Capital fundraise that recently closed at over EUR 200 million. 

Kerstin Schmeiduch opens by discussing Nestlé Purina's collaborations on marine restoration, saying that the company had undertaken an analysis on its environmental and climate impact, including marine resources used in pet food (utilising by-products from the seafood industry, mainly originating from the North Sea), which led it to formulate a series of commitments on regeneration.

Nestlé Purina has established partnerships with a variety of organisations to undertake ocean restoration in the North Sea, including Urchinomics, Oyster Heaven, Sea Ranger Service, and SeaForester.

Greenberg explains that SeaForester focuses on regenerating kelp forests, while Van Der Werf says that Sea Ranger Service focuses on seagrass, by giving full-time paid employment to young people to replant seagrass meadows.

Does this kind of collaboration enable the participants to scale faster?

It's not just about financing, but about validating the business model, says Van Der Werf. "It potentially unlocks a lot more capital investment in this work," he says. "We need to have a corporate in the room to make that possible."

SeaForester was a 2022 finalist for the Earthshot Prize, Roberts points out.

These collaborations raise the credibility of the work, says Greenberg - but scale is crucial.

"We've got to move away from small projects. It's incredible that Nestlé Purina has made the biggest commitment to this." Investing in regenerative projects helps to ensure that seafood companies will continue having access to fish in the future, says Greenberg.

The collaboration also has other benefits, says Schmeiduch, in sharing data, establishing a scientific base or a model that can be replicated. "We tried to do a multi-species approach because that helps us to accelerate... the learnings can be shared in helping to create standards."

Key takeaways?

"Urgency and awareness," says Greenberg - getting people to realise the magnitude of the issue, which he puts on a par with deforestation of the Amazon. "Ocean restoration is moving away from being a charity to being a business," says Van Der Werf, making scale-up feasible.

Meanwhile, Schmeiduch has a message for corporate actors: "Look into your extended supply chain, and join us in trying to restore the ecosystem from which we source."

Good morning and welcome to our second day of liveblogging from the Blue Food Innovation Summit!

This morning’s proceedings are kicking off with a discussion on traceability – also a key feature of debate at last month’s Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona.

The panelists in this first session of the day are: Mark Kaplan (Wholechain), Elizabeth Karan (Director of Ocean Governance at Pew Charitable Trusts), Ben Conniff (Co-founder and CIO, Luke’s Lobster), and Erin Priddel (Marine Stewardship Council), with moderator Jim Cannon (CEO Sustainable Fisheries Partnership).

How are international developments in marine protection and regulation impacting the industry's sustainability and traceability efforts?

Elizabeth Karan begins by highlighting the UN High Seas treaty, which will impact on international "30x30" commitments to protect at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030. She points out that a lot of the implementation will happen in collaboration with local and regional organisations around the world.

From the MSC's perspective, Erin Priddle says that with climate change, "we are seeing stocks moving faster and further than ever before, and at an accelerated rate... We need strong governance at an international level." She emphasises that supply chain collaboration is critical in managing "trans-boundary" stocks that move in international waters. She points out that small pelagic stocks are all currently suspended from MSC certification because of this issue, and hopes that the new UN treaty will help to enable certification.

Mark Kaplan says that Wholechain is working on capturing more precise data from supply chains in real-time, helping to tackle "issues ranging from co-management of small-scale fisheries to labour rights... we function as a support and enabler of achieving sustainable practices and sustainability targets."

How do smaller-scale seafood actors view the megatrends in sustainability certification and traceability?

Ben Conniff of Luke's Lobster in Maine now contributes the perpsective of a small seafood company. "We're a mostly family-owned seafood company on the cusp of small-medium size - we don't typically find ourselves in rooms like this," he says.

"A lot of these regulations, certifications, systems, tech solutions, are expensive, onerous and hard to manage for fishermen and small and medium enterprises," he says, noting that lobstermen are often sole operators with their own boats: "it keeps money in the local commnities, and it makes for a strong fishery."

He says that small fishing companies fear new regulatory and traceability obligations will force them out of business, as only the biggest companies will be able to absorb the cost of implementing the new technologies and regulations.

Priddle says that one way of tackling this problem is for small-scale actors to link up for pre-competitive collaboration, sharing the cost of implementation.

"In Mexico and Yucatan, in South Africa, in Oman, we work directly with small producers and build capacity," says Mark Kaplan. "Transparency and traceability does ensure the future of sustainable food by focusing on the equitable dynamics and relationships within the market".

What changes are needed to prevent the potential problems in the sustainability certification process?

"Unless you have an ethical process... it can go wrong," says Cannon.

Conniff says it's important to open up funding for fishermen and small companies to make the transition, and to ensure they are aware of this opportunity in time.

What's the next step on traceability? asks the moderator

Kaplan says that technology provides transparency. "Recording incorrect or fraudulent data is real. But that enables us to have intervention. One of the steps from Wholechain's perspective is you have to receive your traceability data just like you receive your physical product. If they don't match, there's got to be a reason for that."

"Enhanced data is exposing what's happening in the seafood supply chain," says Priddle. "We need to find what that level playing field is," she says, highlighting the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability as a key initiative in developing this.

"We try to keep the supply chain as short as possible," says Conniff, pointing out that traceability is a way of demonstrating provenance for consumers.

That's a wrap for today's coverage of the summit. WeAreAquaculture will continue liveblogging tomorrow, so please stay tuned!

It has been an intense day of discussions and insights at the Blue Food Innovation Summit, and we close this first day with a final session focusing on a topic that will resonate with all players within the blue economy: investment.

Our panelists for this final session are Ying Qin (Citi Global Insights), Amy Novogratz (co-founder of Aqua-Spark – check out WeAreAquaculture’s interview with her here), Chris Gorell Barnes (Ocean 14 Capital), Larsen Mettler (S2G Ventures), Ross Brooks (Katapult Ocean), and Lucy Holmes (WWF). 

Do we apply a glass half-full or half-empty lens to the blue economy? Ying Qin notes that only 1% of climate finance goes to the ocean, but says "even though blue economy financing is small, it's growing - and growing quickly", through a variety of initiatives from NGOs, venture capital community, and ocean impact funds, among others. However, she says, acceleration is needed .

What's the biggest pain point hindering capital flowing into the blue economy? the moderator asks

"There's plenty of capital in the blue economy; it's the sustainable blue economy we need to work on," says Lucy Holmes, pointing out there is 7 trillion dollars going into "nature-negative" investments. WWF works a lot with the finance sector, Holmes said: "that's the job of NGOs like us, to do the educational advocacy role for the ocean and seafood, to higlight the risks and the opportunities."

Chris Gorell Barnes says we need to think not only about sustainability but about regeneration. "There's a knowledge and understanding gap. Institutional capital doesn't really think about blue economy, they think about risk and return, they think about infrastructure," he says. To attract big institutional investors, more awareness and understanding is needed.

"All the money that's going into climate tech still is not aware that the best ROI is making sure the ocean can do its job of regulating the climate," he says, before pointing out that ensuring food security and healthy human nutrition is another key area for capital investment into blue food.

"Framing, knowledge and success stories are holding us back," says Aqua-Spark's Amy Novogratz. Although there are plenty of promising contenders, including aquaculture "unicorn" efishery, more examples of blue food startup successes are needed to illustrate "where this blue food investment space is going," she says.

"We've heard a ton around collaboration today, and the industry continually talks about collaboration, but it's really hard to see collaboration in action," she says.

What should be on the shared agenda, and what partnerships do the panel foresee?

Novogratz says some shared objectives are traceability, eliminating antibiotics, and removing reliance on marine ingredients for aquafeed. Gorell Barnes adds that the most sustainable businesses ended up being the most valuable ones.

Larsen Mettler agrees, noting that it also opens up access to capital through blue bonds. "I think we're seeing a continued drive in deployment of capital to encourage companies to do this," he says.

"We need to show that some of the big players are on board with the innovations that these start-ups and NGOs are working on," says Novogratz.

Is lack of data an issue for investors?

"I think we need a mix of science and financial instruments," says Gorell Barnes, saying that there is a need to put a value on ecosystem services provided by the ocean, and highlights the development of ocean data technologies as a driver for this - although he points out that ocean health data still has huge gaps, for example in knowing the true extent of carbon sequestration, and tracking of abandoned maritime equipment or plastic debris.

Novogratz says aquaculture "has historically been a very opaque industry" but with so much impact investment entering the blue food space, and the rise of aquatech services, data collection and metrics have become much more detailed and reliable in recent years.

Any advice on raising awareness?

"Blue food is arguably the best investment thesis of all time," says Gorell Barnes. "Share your learning with others... partner and cooperate," says Novogratz.

Today's penultimate session now features a series of case studies from different regions around the world – Mexico, Iceland and the Caribbean, with moderator Anton Immink (CEO of ThinkAqua), and speakers Alan Espinoza Gorozave (of regenerative oyster aquaculture venture Bendito Mar Seafarm), Jens Thordarson (CEO of land-based salmon company GeoSalmo), and Juli-Anne Russo (Caribbean Aquaculture Education and Innovation Hub).

Alan Espinoza Gorozave kicks off by introducing Bendito Mar Seafarm, a cooperative cultivating oysters, scallops and other bivalves in Baja California.

"We are a regenerative aquaculture company, focusing on three levels: community, environment and economy," he explains. The project helps local communities, working with 47 cooperatives or around 500 families in an area covering approximately 600km, and supporting the transition from former fishing industry to aquaculture.

Now Juli-Anne Russo introduces the Caribbean Aquaculture Hub. She says she will focus specifically on Jamaica, St Lucia and the Bahamas. "We have a culture of fishing, we love our seafood, but it has become highly over-fished," she explains.

"Why is it if we are such a seafood-loving country, aquaculture is 0.4% in Jamaica?... For us, the biggest challenge is skills." She started the network to bring together Caribbean marine biologists and to link together Caribbean institutions working in isolation. "We believe our investment has to go into our scientists," she says.

Last up is Jens Thordarson, CEO of Iceland's GeoSalmo, which is in the process of constructing a land-based salmon farm utilising hybrid flow-through technology, and aiming for up to 100,000 tonnes of production capacity.

"Location is everything. Technology is something everyone has access to, but location will always have an edge. We have access to pristine seawater sources that are filtered through lava rocks in the ground, that give stable temperatures all year round". He says that land-based farming in Iceland could be revolutionary for the country, calling it "one of the most exciting things happening in global seafood today".

In the seventh panel discussion for today, we hear from some international experts from the world of seaweed and impact finance: Ólavur Gregersen (CEO of Ocean Rainforest - you can read WeAreAquaculture's interview with him here), Prof. Jan Kim (Incheon National University), Alice Millest (Finance Earth), Sowmya Balendiran (Sea6 Energy), and Harry Wright (Bright Tide).

Is the seaweed sector ready to scale up?

"From a global south persepctive, seaweeds have been cultivated for decades, but I think we see a change in the rest of the world about how seaweed is perceived," says Sowmya Balendiran, noting a "huge jump" in applications and innovations in seaweed globally.

"The challenges you are experiencing in Europe and other western countries, are the challenges experienced in Korea forty years ago," says Professor Kim. Now, climate change is the key challenge, he continues, with the South Korean government investing to support innovation in seaweed aquaculture to mitigate this.

"When you look at the market outlook in general, there is a serious need to find alternative ingredients for food and feed, but there is also an interest in products that can be healthy and something that can mitigate climate change... seaweed can fit into all those mega-trends," says Gregersen. "That also means me need to understand how to scale," he adds, noting there is a difference between near-shore and offshore cultivation.

"We need some of you here and in other places to make commitments" in enabling this scale-up process, Gregersen says.

"A lot of different parts of the value chain need to evolve alongside one another. You need to have a pull from the end-buyer... the farmers have to be producing at a certain scale to make sense for the processors..." says Millest, in the context of the UK seaweed market.

Balendiran points out that in Asia seaweed is already produced at industrial scale, but that in Europe and North America the sector is still relatively small scale, and faces different challenges, for example, from harsher weather conditions. She explains that in order to develop Sea6 Energy's first 1-square-kilometer farm, the key challenge was technology and mechanisation. "You have to understand your crop, your geography and your target market. It's a very early industry," she says.

Permits are another significant challenge, the panellists agree, although there are "signs of hope" says Alice Millest. Social licence to operate is another significant factor, with companies who factored in community support and engagement from the outset of their projects finding this easier to navigate, she adds.

Collaboration essential to develop the seaweed sector, say panelists

"Availability of people and knowledge is still limited", says Balendiran - although exchange and collaboration between regions is an opportunity. "There are bottlenecks, everyone's still learning, it's new. But if you just want to do it all alone it's just going to take that much longer."

"Entrepreneurs cannot come up with all the solutions by themselves," says Gregersen, saying that collaboration with potential customers and end-users is essential in developing the industry.

Kim echoes this sentiment, saying that collaboration between between east and west can open up more knowledge and also help companies access bigger markets.

Next up is a panel discussion taking a look at what's on the horizon for raw materials and novel solutions in aquafeed.

Moderated by Jane Byrne (FeedNavigator), panellists for this session are: Chris Ninnes (CEO of Aquaculture Stewardship Council), Laurent Develle (Regal Springs), Louise Buttle (dsm-firmenich), Douglas Martin (MiAlgae), and Clément Ray (Innovafeed).

Jane Byrne points out that aquaculture production is set to double by 2050 according to FAO figures, meaning aquafeed demand will also surge by "50 million more tons than we have now". But what are they key opportunities and developments in alternative feed ingredients?

"The fish feed industry in Norway and Scotland has flexed towards the use of by-products and trimmings," says Louise Buttle. "We should also look at other under-utilised, not-currently-acceptable raw materials."

Is there room for expansion in fishmeal through the use of by-products?

"By-products now account for around 30% of the inputs," says Chris Ninnes. "Sustainability is about making more from less, and as aquaculture continues to grow, then so too will the quest for where these important ingredients are coming from... I'm pretty sure as this demand picks up so too will the net be cast further to bring in products that are essentially being wasted at the moment".

What about insect ingredients?

Clément Ray says insect protein is poised to help supply some of that extra 50 million tons. "In the next 5 years, insects will still be used in the most value-creating elements such as the freshwater stage in salmon farming." Ray says he believes new partnerhips will be established with feedstock players but also increasingly aquaculture players.

When asked about feedstock for insect production, Ray admits there are some bottlenecks. "Today, the feedstock used to feed insects is feedstock that is not used in animal feed... I see more competition between feedstock for insects and feedstocks for biogas production."

How can alternative proteins overcome barriers to scale?

"Getting to that scale is reliant on an investment phase, partners willing to do the journey from investment into a more commercial phase, as the technology to upscale and of course Capex," says Buttle, noting the significant investment needed to get to a 50,000 or 100,000 ton production plant.

"For a farmer like ourselves, feed is the cornerstone, the foundation of the whole business model. It impacts two-thirds of your operation costs, your farming, the welfare and quality of your fish, it impacts your carbon footprint... it impacts the water quality of our lakes," says Laurent Develle.

A good business case for a company like Regal Springs, Develle notes, would not come from a start-up but from a large feed company, offering the right combination of performance, price, Scope 3 carbon emissions, and "last but not least, consumer acceptance."

Building partnerships and commitments to scale up from lab to industrial scale is key, says Douglas Martin. "We need that partnerhip early on, there's a lot of time between nothing and 50,000 tons," he says, noting that the right investment partners and long-term contracts can make the difference between a start-up and a scale-up.

"Historically the feed contracts have been relatively short-term... but we do see a trend for longer-term contracts," says Buttle, noting that multi-year approaches are becoming more frequent. "That enables more strategic multi-stakeholder partnerships across the value chain. In terms of investment in these novel raw materials early on, these new business models are needed."

The delegates have enjoyed some time set aside for meetings and lunch, and now we’re back and ready for this afternoon’s sessions. 

We get back into the summit now with a session focused on aquatic health and welfare, with panelists Tanja Knabenschuh Hoel (Hatch Blue), Pamela Nath (Sustainable Shrimp Partnership – see WeAreAquaculture's interview with her from last year), Ross Houston (Benchmark Genetics), Sven Kolsto (CEO of Optoscale), and Ben North (Zoetis). 

"Vaccines have been very effective in stopping bacterial diseases," says Ben North, noting that most salmon farmers use an array of vaccines to protect their fish, with an attendant decline in the use of antibiotics, particularly in Norway.

"With new tech, you need to change your organisation and how your business works," says Sven Kolsto. "That's what we try to tell our customers across the world. we have a set of best practices that give the best results, but if the top management doesn't buy in and change as an organisaiton, many times the innovations will not be utilised and will provide little value."

Ross Houston highlights the importance of data. "We need to have precise measurements of what we want to protect for. We need good phenotypes. Genetics is a very long-term game," he says, noting that it takes 3-4 years to complete a breeding cycle in salmon, although in shrimp this is much faster. He calls on continued investment in genetics to enable the entire industry to benefit.

Pamela Nath says that clients and retailers sometimes require producers to use certain technologies, but this entails a cost to the farmers, and says partnership and collaboration are needed. SSP has established a roundtable to address challanges. "We have become like an innovation lab for the shrimp industry... we work in a pre-competitive way to find solutions and to try what works".

Importance of collaboration, sharing data and building trust

"I think documentation is a huge challenge for us as a genetics company. It's easy to show improvements in production traits like growth... but disease resistance is a lot more challenging to document." That's where partnerships with industry and data-sharing are important, Houston adds, saying that another very important area to develop is the synergy between genetics and vaccines.

"You need to build the trust, that it's worth the investment, it's worth the hassle for the change," North points out, drawing on his experience in vaccine adoption among pangasius farmers in Vietnam.

Houston says gene editing could be a game-changer in fish health and welfare. He notes that this technique is different from genetic modification because it doesn't involve transferring new genetic information from another organism, but instead introduces a mutation equivalent to a naturally-ocurring change.

"Gene editing allows you to introduce a targeted change, for example to improve resistance to disease," Houston says, adding that the potential to improve animal welfare through gene editing could help to develop consumer trust: "the avoidance of the need for treatments alone justifies the investment and use of the technology." For example, he says, gene editing could be used to increase Atlantic salmon resistance against sea lice - a trait which is already present in other species of salmonids.

Does the industry have enough indicators for what constitutes good animal welfare?

The answer is yes and no, says Kolsto. Standards exist, but they are not used everywhere in the industry. "I don't think the standards we have today are what we will use in a couple of years' time," he says. "We need to develop a new language which tells us in a uniform way what is the status of the fish."

Now we move on to a “deep dive” on consumer demand and markets, with panellists Jennifer Bushman (Culinary Media Group), Briana Warner (President & CEO, Atlantic Sea Farms), Lloyd Mann (Sodexo) and Carly Arnold (Nomad Foods). 

"When we talk about innovation in groups like this, we tend to talk about innovation for ourselves. This group sitting right here is representative of about 5% of the planet. We need to feed the 95%," says Briana Warner.

"The money being spent at the grocery store in the US is driven by millenials and Gen Z. We need to innovate for new taste buds. We need to innovate for traceability... we need to be delivering food to the market that that generation wants, and with more respect to the culinary innovation in that generation which is very different from their parents," Warner says.

"Seafood sometimes becomes this unbranded commodity," says Warner. "We strive at Atlantic Sea Farms to have everything be branded." That means including the brand and provenance on menus, on consumer products, and also on downstream products such as vitamins and supplements, where the company is the supplier.

"We don't want to be in the seafood section because no one goes there. In the United States, it's the least-visited part of the grocery store," says Warner.

"On average, only 1-2% of the total basket in retail is from the fish and seafood department," adds Bushman.

"No matter what part of the supply chain you are in, you want to be part of this element of trust that we're trying to build, whether it's a feed component, or part of a technology... what creates and builds the market for everyone is that everything is transparent. You should never be satisfied in allowing someone not to show you exist," says Bushman.

Bushman closes the session urging the blue food sector to work together to keep seafood on global menus and dinner plates: "We are in the fight of our lives... we have been siloed... We have to earn our seat at the table for the future of food," she says.

Next up is a high-tech panel discussing how AI and related digital tools are transforming data utilisation in aquaculture, and what potential these hold for the future. The panellists are also looking at challenges and opportunities in integrating such tools in "blue food" sectors. 

The speakers are Kendra MacDonald (CEO of Canada’s Ocean Supercluster), Christian Lim (Investment Director SWEN Capital Partners: Blue Ocean), Rajamanohar Somasundaram (founder and CEO of Aquaconnect - see WeAreAquaculture's in-depth interview with him here), Mathew Zimola (Founder and CEO of ReelData AI - WeAreAquaculture also interviewed Zimola in 2022) and Kira Smiley (Program Director, Tidal / X The Moonshot Company). 

What are the biggest benefits customers see from these solutions?

"One of the biggest challenges in the industry is information scarcity," says Zimola, "knowing what's going on underneath the water". Zimola says that AI solutions can radically increase productivity and efficiency by taking the guesswork out of farming.

"Moving from a lack of insight, you can shift to a place where in almost real time you can have information about health and welfare, feeding...", says Smiley, noting that producers are able to conduct experiments to adjust the efficiency of their operations - which improves sustainability by improving feed efficiency and reducing mortality.

Somasundaram says that automation helps smallholders in India get the data they need, and enables greater predictability for farmers. "This non-intrusive data can lead to a lot of solutions in the value chain... This leads to financial inclusion on a large scale."

The panellists stress the importance of quality data inputs. Zimlola says that working with an AI provider often enables companies to start collecting data they can actually use -- and may mean they discover that their historical data logs are of little utility.

Lim says that AI also brings benefits in social licence and transparency. Real-time measurement of fish health and feeding helps improve sustainability, while collecting detailed data on farming operations can be used for traceability and enhancing consumer trust and confidence, he adds.

This panel features Wenche Grønbrekk (Director of Strategy & Partnerships, SeaBOS), Chris Shearlock (Sustainability Director, Europe, Thai Union), Dave Robb (SeaFurther Sustainability Program Lead, Cargill) and Lars Galtung (Chief Sustainability & Communications Officer, Cermaq Global).

The panellists are focusing on how producers balance optimising yields with meeting science-based targets, what the roadblocks are for this, and also what milestones have been achieved - and what more is needed in terms of technology, benchmarking and collaboration?

Thai Union's Chris Shearlock says that companies need to put their money where their mouth is when implementing sustainability strategies, noting that Thai Union has invested the "equivalent of a year's net profits for the group" in its sustainability efforts.

Lars Galtung notes that Cermaq is innovating regarding fish health and welfare. He said his company is investing in alternative sea lice treatments to help reduce stress and injury among salmon, including laser lice treatments. Cermaq is also using a blockchain solution for traceability, providing data on diet, farming location, and when the fish was put into the sea.

"In all geographies, we need to improve fish health and reduce mortality numbers. That's the first part, but then we need to tell our story so people can understand, because the distance between food production and consumers has become too big. The alternative is much worse and not sustainable."

Cargill's Dave Robb says that the pace of innovation is increasing also in the feed sector. "We're working upstream with our suppliers, not just in novel ingredients but in traditional ingredients as well... and downstream, working with our customers. We're in the centre of the value chain." Robb says the challenge it to keep up with the rate of change and complexity of topics. "It's not just about carbon, but carbon gives us a good direction to work on," he says.

Robb also describes Cargill's collaborative approach in west Africa where it is working with multiple supply chains to tackle serious issues including illegal fishing and human rights.

This session focuses on balancing food security with sustainability for regulators and producers alike.

Panellists in this session are: Michael Doane (The Nature Conservancy), Michael Rubino (NOAA), Catarina Martins (Mowi), Lorella De La Cruz Iglesias (European Commission’s Director General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries) and Paddy Campbell (BioMar). 

They will be tackling the following issues:

• As Global populations rise and governments manage approaches to address food security and protein gaps, how are aquatic food sources rising in profile globally as a solution to hunger? 

• How do policymakers and leaders perceive aquatic food systems as a crucial resource and climate solution, and how are governing bodies addressing the climate impact in aquaculture and fisheries? What policies and systems are in place to enhance food security from the ocean and foster socio-economic opportunities? 

• What strategic actions and combined financial support from both public and private organizations are needed to improve resilience and sustainability in the blue economy and what role do tech-based solutions and data play a role in addressing food security challenges? 

Lorella De La Cruz Iglesias points out that aquaculture in the EU has been identified as a key strategic area, but despite this it remains quite limited in growth within the bloc, and concentrated in only a few countries and species. She says that “Aquatic food plays a key role in both challenges" of producing low-carbon protein and ensuring food security within Europe.

"We live in a global marketplace with widely differing production and labour standards," says Michael Rubino. He says that the next challenge is to bring together big data with traceability. "Governments are often slow to adapt, but private sector moves much faster," and that's a reason for optimism, Rubino says.

How did sustainability become an "imperative" for Mowi? asks the moderator.

"There is really no option," says Catarina Martins. "We are so dependent on nature. The bottom line and survival of the business is dependent on doing that right."

Sustainability is also a "licence to operate" she says. "I think there's a lot of good work being done out there," she says, highlighting the FAIRR benchmark, who benchmark the 60 largest animal producers in the world, and points out that aquaculture producers are always ranked at the top of this sustainability index.

How does BioMar see sustainability? the moderator asks Paddy Campbell

"We have to be able to measure what we want in terms of sustainability, then we have to widen our raw material basket to achieve that," Campbell says.

"First, we're looking for raw materials that will reduce our carbon footprint. Year on year, we have to deliver to science-based targets iniatitive. We also have to look at where those raw materials come from," he says, noting that BioMar wants to use circular and regenerative ingredients, as well as reduce its forage fish dependency ratio, how much marine raw materials the company uses in its feeds to produce 1 kilo of farmed fish or shrimp.

"Some of these factors contradict each other, but you can't forget all three of them. Being able to measure them, to track them, and to engage with the suppliers, to help them develop new novel raw materials."

"There's a huge gap in supply and demand for Omega 3 fatty acids, that give the human benefit for eating fish, but also a huge benefit for the species we are farming, but there's not enough," he says, pointing out that traditionally these came from fish oil but now there are huge opportunities from algae and genetically-modified crop oils. "In effect, you are growing fish oil on land," he says, taking pressure off fish oil in aquafeed.

How about social licence to operate?

"I think that awareness is not there yet," says Lorella De La Cruz Iglesias - not only among consumers, but also governments.

"There is a question of political will to explain why aquaculture is important, and also informing the citizen." It's also of key importance for coastal communities, she points out, "keeping people in their own communities, creating jobs - this is not something that is sufficiently visible in discussions about aquaculture."

Michael Rubino says children's story books are often focused on farming pigs and chickens, but "how many kids know what an oyster farm look like?... Putting a human face on who is doing the production is going to be very important going forward." Rubino says media and social media can play an important role in raising awareness.

Campbell adds that there is a perception that fish feeds are much higher in marine ingredients than the reality. He says that "giving information in a proactive way is the immediate job to be done".

What would be some game-changers for the industry?

Smolt strategy, says Catarina Martins. Genetically modified feed and microbial fermentation ingredients, says Paddy Campbell. "We're buying nutrients that the fish need and that the consumer needs. Through genetic modification you can speed up yields, you can adapt the nutritional profile. Of course there has to be market acceptance and approvals in place, but looking to the future it's going to be really important."

Nature-based solutions, says De La Cruz, highlighting Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) approaches. "We have to use the space wisely," she says, and adds "we can look at combining aquaculture with other industries, like offshore wind and also fisheries". Development of low-trophic aquaculture is part of EU strategy, she adds. "We are looking into understanding better the environmental benefits of this type of aquaculture, and also how to provide incentives."

Martins says that IMTA still needs to be "fine-tuned to fit the realities of operations", and that it may not be applicable to all sites, for example where currents are strong.

Here we go with the first speaker of today's busy line-up -- a Ministerial keynote on “Collaborative Solutions for a Climate-Resilient Ocean Economy” from The Rt. Hon. Lord Benyon, who has a dual role as Minister of State at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, as well as at DEFRA, the UK's Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs.

Marine protection is something he feels "passionate" about, he says, noting that balancing the increase in global demand for protein with ocean protection is "one of the greatest policy challenges we collectively face."

He notes that salmon, and particularly salmon produced in Scotland is "massively important to the UK food economy" but hightlights the challenges the sector faces, including sea lice and antibiotics usage - he says that across the terrestrial farming sector in the UK, there has been a 55% reduction in usage of antibiotics, while in salmon farming antibiotics use has actually increased.

He says that Defra is supporting research on treatments for sea lice and salmon diseases, and highlights innovations like closed containment, land-based facilities and large smolt strategies, adding he is "keen to see the UK lead the way in terms of sustainable salmon farming".

The minister also highlights seaweed and microalgae as a key area for UK aquaculture with a great deal of potential.