To promote sustainable European aquaculture further, the European Commission set up shop at the Aquaculture Europe 2016 conference in Edinburgh last week. The Commission used the opportunity to promote its \"Farmed in the EU\" campaign, which aims to raise awareness of the quality and sustainability of European aquaculture among European consumers, in particular schoolchildren. The Commission also informed visitors about funding opportunities available for sustainable aquaculture projects under EU funding instruments like the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) and Horizon 2020.

The University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC) will coordinate a project funded by the European Union (EU) to convert waste from banana plantations into useful fibers for plastics and feed production for aquaculture farms. The project will last three years and has the main objective of establishing a circular economy proposal from waste generated in a banana plantation, through the pseudostem.

The largest fishmeal plant of Viet Nam was officially put into operation on September 26. The 10,000sq.m. plant is located in Song Doc Town, Tran Van Thoi District in the southernmost province of Ca Mau. Its design production capacity is 30,000 tonnes per year, with modern technology imported from Europe. \"The plant\'s operation will help our company actively control the input quality for producing foodstuff for animals.\"

Because of aquafeed requirements, aquaculture remains inextricably linked to feed ingredients sourced from marine fisheries. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing, according to Anton Immink, aquaculture director for Sustainable Fisheries Partnership. “Fishmeal and fish oil are excellent feed ingredients that outperform their rivals. Aquaculture needs fishmeal and fish oil. Therefore, we have a core responsibility in engaging in [fishery] improvement efforts.”

The second Sea Grant Workshop in a two-part series, titled Offshore Aquaculture in the Southern California Bight, was convened to bring together federal and state coastal managers with statutory authorities for review and permitting of marine aquaculture in federal waters off the coast of Southern California with scientists and other stakeholders.

Attending the UN High-level Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance in New York and the ONE Health Antibiotic Stewardship Summit hosted by Elanco in Washington D.C., Nutreco CEO Knut Nesse made a case for substantially reducing the use of antibiotics in food production. “With a holistically integrated approach based on farm, feed and health management, antibiotic use can be reduced significantly on a global scale – with equal or even improved productivity.”

For BioMar, sustainable growth of aquaculture lies in utilizing new feed ingredients that match requirements for a good and healthy growth of the fish and for a stable, high quality of the final product. Exploiting microalgae as a feed ingredient can match these requirements. \"Aquaculture is said to become an ever more important source of proteins for human consumption,\" Vidar Gundersen, Global Sustainability Director of the BioMar Group. \"We must secure that it\'s growth is sustainable and that the final products provided by our industry, the fish and shrimp that we eat, stay as sound and healthy as they are. I have no doubt, the future growth of aquaculture lies in exploiting algae as a feed ingredient.\"

Cooke Aquaculture is developing an environmentally friendly and economical device and process to remove sea lice from farmed salmon that will help minimize sea lice-related losses and provide a green alternative to managing outbreaks. The Government of Canada is investing $3 million in this project through ACOA’s Atlantic Innovation Fund, as well as $247,000 through Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s Aquaculture Collaborative Research and Development Program. \"This investment supports the Government of Canada’s commitment to ensuring our fisheries are environmentally, economically and socially sustainable.\"

On the 29th and 30th of August, EUfishmeal and Nordic Marine Think Tank hosted a conference on the perspectives of fishmeal and fish oil at the North Sea Center in Hirtshals, Denmark. On the second day of the conference the focus shifted from management of the fishery to the role of fishmeal and feed in the value chain. The latest research in fishmeal and fish oil was presented and the need for even more research within the composition of feed and the unique characteristics of fishmeal and fish oil was identified by different stakeholders in the audience.

The Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Certification and Accreditation Administration of the People’s Republic of China (CNCA), China Entry Exit Inspection and Quarantine Association (CIQA) and Seafood HACCP Alliance (SHA) at GAA’s GOAL 2016 conference in Guangzhou, China, on Sept. 20. The four organizations agreed to establish the International Aquaculture Products Quality Safety and Certification Partnership Program. The program, which aims to build trust for aquaculture products that require less regulatory attention and instill confidence in buyers, will drive aquaculture operations to meet major seafood markets’ food safety requirements.

Senators Fabian Manning and Elizabeth Hubley have reissued a report on the aquaculture industry that calls for a doubling of the industry in the next decade. They made the presentation before the Aquaculture and Cold Harvest Conference in St. John\'s VOCM\'s. The report calls for a renewed Aquaculture Act to be passed by the federal government that will give the $2-billion industry more ability to grow across the country.

In response to a review on antimicrobial resistance, United Kingdom’s Government has committed to a reduction in antibiotic use in farmed fish farmed for direct human consumption in two years, using methodology harmonised across other countries in Europe. In the case of aquaculture, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) explained the reduction in antibiotic use be amount to an average of 50mg/kg from the most recent 2014 figure of 62mg/kg.

In a world of depleting fish stocks, Pacific Ocean Culture PTE Ltd will produce a premium organic farmed product at their farm in Navua, to provide a nutritious food source for the people, create direct employment, provide practical training to students of the Fiji National University (FNU) and set the benchmark for commercial aquaculture in the Pacific.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment has published the call for aid for research in the National Aquaculture Plans for an amount of EUR 2 million. Public research organizations, public universities, instrumental public entities of the autonomous public sector developing R & D + i and technology centers and those supporting technological innovation of public and state level character will be able to request these aids.

A company in Oita Prefecture said it has succeeded in the world’s first farming of bluefin tuna using only formulated feed. Hyoshoku Co. said Wednesday that using the feed makes it easier to control the quality of the tuna regardless of the season. The company will start selling the tuna locally before shipping it to other parts of the country.

Acting U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Ken Hyatt recently announced that St. Joseph, Michigan-based American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) will receive $260,112 from the International Trade Administration’s (ITA) Market Development Cooperator Program (MDCP). The award will help ASABE and its member companies to work to develop international standards for feed machinery. Utilizing these Federal resources, ASABE aims to increase exports through trade standardization.

At the recent Aquaculture Chennai 2016, conference, Lallemand Aquaculture Product Manager Stéphane Ralite delivered a talk on \"A novel approach in securing aquaculture production with a synergetic association of yeast extracts,” which highlighted challenges of shrimp farm management and the development of innovative microbial based solutions. He focused the discussion on the microbial management of the pond, possible through biocontrol or bioremediation strategies, and gut microbial management through the use of beneficial bacteria (probiotics) in feed.

USSEC Vietnam will focus on the ingredients taurine and lecithin in an upcoming Asian Aquaculture Feed Formulation Database (AAFFD) workshop. USSEC’s goal is to give aquaculture feed formulators more confidence in using a cost-effective soy-optimized diet. The U.S. Soybean Sustainability Assurance Protocol (SSAP) will be a key method to promote U.S. Soy products.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in farmed shrimp threatens the effective prevention and treatment of an ever-increasing range of infections that are caused by bacteria. Skretting has confirmed that the right combination of novel functional ingredients in the shrimp feeds will work in synergy to support the functioning of the immune system and to help protect shrimp against hostile threats. “Thanks to this knowledge and expertise, we have proved that shrimp farmers do not have to rely on antibiotics and risk building up AMR in their stocks.”

While presenting at the 2016 Biomin Aqua Days held in late August, Dr. Alessio Bonaldo, Associate Professor in the Department of Veterinary Medical Sciences at the University of Bologna, argued that farmed fish are weaker than in the past due to two factors. First, less fishmeal and fish oil in diets, and second, the intensification of aquaculture have led to weakened immune systems. Part of the solution involves meeting the nutritional requirements of farmed species. “It is possible to completely replace fish meal in shrimp feeds, provided that you have correct supplementation.”