The Global Aquaculture Alliance announced that Jeff Fort has agreed to take on the role of chief operating officer, effectively immediately, in addition to his existing role as chief financial officer, a position he has held with the organization since 2012. “Jeff has supported GAA since its inception in many capacities and has been instrumental recently with the consolidation of operations and staffing in our Portsmouth, N.H., headquarters. The professionalism and performance of our associates is what distinguishes GAA, and Jeff can rightly take a good deal of credit for getting us to where we are today.”

Globally, the past year has seen many changes at feed company Skretting. The latest is that Erlend Sodal now has widened responsibility and takes over Skretting UK and Australia, in addition to Norway. “Yes, this is a change of course. (Owner) Nutreco wants to let Skretting rein in its portfolio. They want Skretting to concentrate on the feed market and to strengthen its position in it. A number of positions in The Netherlands have been moved to Norway.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine has launched Phase III of the redesigned Animal Drugs @ FDA website. As before, the new Animal Drugs @ FDA website provides a searchable database for veterinarians, pet owners, animal producers and others to get information about approved animal drugs by application number, sponsor name, proprietary name, ingredient, application status, dosage form, route of administration, indication and species.

The Center for Tropical and Subtropical Aquaculture (CTSA) has produced a video highlighting aquaculture activities in Palau. In an effort to keep this small island nation pristine, the government is switching focus from commercial fishing to local aquaculture production. CTSA interviewed several aquaculture stakeholders from the local community, including researchers, farmers, conservation officials, and more to produce a series of short films, the first of which is now online.

Aller Aqua has won the Entrepreneur of the Year award in Denmark, as well as a Globalization Award. An independent jury awarded Aller Aqua the two prizes during a ceremony held in Copenhagen. The award is given out by Ernst & Young as part of the world\'s largest competition for growth companies. \"The opening of two new factories this year as well as our approach to sustainable production and knowledge sharing in new challenging markets are some of the reasons we have received these awards. We place a big emphasis on education of fish farmers in new markets as well as our CSR activities. It is certainly possible to achieve growth in a responsible way.”

Philippe de Lapérouse, managing director of HighQuest Partners, sees feed as one of the most promising investment opportunities in aquaculture. De Lapérouse cites as a promising area new feeds utilizing fermented soybeans. Several companies have developed proprietary formulas for processing soybean meal into fermented soy protein that is easily digested by fish. “Feeds have been considered a safe field.”

AquiNovo Ltd., a portfolio company of The Trendlines Group, announced that it signed an agreement with Neovia for an aggregate investment of $1.5 million. AquiNovo\'s offers a non-genetically modified, non-hormonal, easy-to-use solution that may be incorporated into fish feed to offer hatcheries and fish farms a shorter time to market and additional growth cycles within their existing infrastructure.

Two months after confirming the acquisition of Ecuadorian feed manufacturer Alimentsa, BioMar has announced the establishment of a new trial facility for shrimp, the ATC Aquaculture Technology Center, in Ecuador. \"We are moving into several new geographies and new species, and this requires an increase in R&D activities. Our global set-up based in Trondheim is complemented with our ATC (Aquaculture Technology Centre) innovation network, which includes ATC Patagonia in Chile, ATC Nordic with facilities in Denmark and Norway as well as now our ATC in Ecuador. Here we will mainly focus on shrimp, strengthening our set-up and allowing a faster take to market.\"

Scotland’s leading salmon and trout producers have united in a bid to extend the usage and efficacy of the two most environmentally-friendly sea lice treatments, determine what happens when freshwater and hydrogen peroxide-based treatment Paramove® are combined. The anticipated benefits of the 12-month, £242,985 project include even better control of sea lice, reduced use of medicines and shorter treatment times – all of which will further enhance fish health and welfare, and help deliver higher production volumes.

Nutriad has released the results of its 2017 Mycotoxin Survey, which provided insight into the incidences of aflatoxin B1 (AfB1), zearalenone (ZEN), deoxynivalenol (DON), T-2 toxin, HT-2 toxin, fumonisin B1 (FB1), fumonisin B2 (FB2) and ochratoxin A (OTA). The results showed that 83% of the wheat samples were contaminated with DON. None of the samples contained AfB1, FB1, FB2, T-2 toxin and HT-2 toxin. Only 2,3 % of samples contained ZEN. The survey concluded that the year’s harvest of wheat in Poland was of medium quality in terms of mycotoxin contamination, and that the 2017 crop should not automatically be considered safe for inclusion into finished feed rations for all animal species and a degree of vigilance is prudent.

New research from WorldFish undertaken as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Fish Agri-food Systems (FISH) has identified means to lessen the use of antimicrobials in aquaculture. The study notes that antimicrobial use can be mitigated through farmer training, spatial planning, assistance with disease identification, applying better management practices at farm level and stricter regulations.

The ASC-MSC Seaweed (Algae) Standard has been approved for release on November 22, 2017. The joint standard marks a first for the two certification programs, bringing together expertise in sustainable fishing and responsible aquaculture. The ASC-MSC Seaweed (Algae) Standard applies globally to all locations and scales of seaweed operations, including both harvesting of wild population and cultured seaweed production on farms. The Seaweed Standard will be effective from March 1st, 2018.

Avanti Feeds has generated high growth and returns with its customer-focussed approach to manufacturing shrimp feed. Over the last 10 years, the share price of Avanti Feeds has grown from ₹10 to ₹2,860—an annual growth of 76 percent.

The marine ingredients that are manufactured with Peruvian anchovy make it possible to multiply by four the cultivated fish that arrive at our tables, stated the president of the National Society of Pesquería (SNP). \"It\'s the anchovy that is transformed into ingredients to net a lot more fish protein that ends up in our dishes.\"

In connection with the recent acquisition of 70% of the shares in Alimentsa, BioMar Group has appointed Danny Velez as General Manager. \"I am very honored to be chosen to lead this important step forward for Alimentsa. I see a huge opportunity developing Alimentsa with support from the global innovation teams in BioMar. At the AquaExpo in Guayaquil our customers were truly excited about the new opportunities ahead and I am sure that together we will make leaps and bounds towards contributing to the innovation of the aquaculture industry in Ecuador.”

The Commissioners of the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) Atlantic Menhaden Management Board voted in favor of maintaining the way it manages the species. As part of Amendment 3 to the Atlantic Menhaden Intestate Fishery Management Plan (FMP), the Commission decided to continue with the current management measures for the species until its biological ecological reference points (BERP) workgroup finishes developing menhaden-specific ecological reference points (ERPs). These ERPs are supported by the MFC, and would manage menhaden based on its role in the ecosystem as forage for predator species.

A new project led by a consortium of industry and research organizations, including the Skretting Aquaculture Research Center, is aiming to produce a rich source of protein for fish feeds using wood. The SYLFEED project will focus on upscaling a bio-refinery concept that can convert woody biomass into high-value Single Cell Protein (SCP) for use as animal feed. The overall objective of the SYLFEED project is to build a demonstration plant with the capacity of treating 15 tonnes of biomass per day, i.e. up to five thousand tons of biomass per year.

Schouw & Co., parent company of BioMar, released its interim report for the third quarter of 2017, which showed that consolidated revenue grew by 12%. In spite of an increasingly competitive market for fish feeds, BioMar reported strong growth in volumes sold, with the largest improvement occurring in the salmon business. However, developments in foreign exchange rates and prices of raw materials have curbed the revenue increase.

A businessman and farmer from South Africa won a grand prize trip to the Cleantech Open Global Forum competition next February in the US for his innovative use of dehydrated worms to make animal feed. Bandile Dlabantu‚ who won R120‚000 after winning first place in the local competition‚ said his dream was to expand his brand to other African countries. The feed by Dlabantu’s company‚ Khepri Meal™‚ is said to be cheaper than conventional feed‚ reducing the cost of animal farming.

NovoNutrients has developed a proprietary process which uses microbes to convert CO2 from industrial emissions into a feed ingredient for fish and other animals. NovoMeal is a nutritionally balanced, single-cell protein meal derived from a consortium of non-GMO, GRAS* microbes. It is a complete protein, with all ten essential amino acids needed by fish, as well as necessary fatty acids, vitamins, anti-oxidants and minerals. In addition to NovoMeal, NovoNutrients is also developing a line of feed additives.