SFI Harvest - Technologies for sustainable biomarine value creation

SFI Harvest conducts research on the small species krill and Calanus, both in Norwegian waters and in Antarctica. We have learned a lot in the years that the SFI has lasted, but there are still white areas on the map. How can we exploit it without damaging nature and the balance of the ecosystem? Since 2020, we have sought answers to questions such as: What do we find, how much can we withdraw without upsetting the eco-balance, what products can we make from this and how should it be done? And not least, what new technology do we need? Perhaps there are also completely different opportunities – and there are certainly also challenges. We need more knowledge and we need technology for responsible harvesting and processing of marine species at lower levels in the food chain. So far, we know that krill, copepods and other zooplankton and phytoplankton species can nutritionally replace soy as a high-quality protein source in fish feed. Scientists, fishermen, the biomarine industry, technology providers and interest groups work together to develop knowledge about the dynamics of the ecosystem, as well as technology for monitoring, data collection and harvesting of underexploited species. Decision support for fishermen, product development and business models are also on the agenda for SFI Harvest. To find out how much krill, Calanus and mesopelagic fish there are, autonomous systems are needed for mapping and monitoring abundance and concentration. We have now carried out a field experiment in which autonomous vessels, above and below water, collaborate to find larger concentrations of Calanus, and these are searching in areas that have been identified as promising by models developed by the researchers in SFI Harvest. When the vessels find Calanus, they send this information to the person who is going to fish for copepods. This field trial is a major breakthrough for our center. In addition, these models for sustainable harvesting and management of the fish species in question will estimate and predict the species' characteristics and role in the ecosystem, as well as their migrations in time and space. This is important in order to lay the foundation for sustainable fisheries, both in terms of stock management, but also in terms of fuel consumption. If the fisherman has reliable decision support that tells them how much catch and profit they can expect to get back for sailing to a given location, they can compare this to the fuel they need to use. Fishermen also need equipment that works, both for targeted catches without bycatch of other species and for storage and processing of the biomass they take on board. New harvesting technologies are being tested with different trawl designs, and this can eventually be transferred to the development of new tools for collecting plastic from the sea, as well as the development of fishing gear that protects the seabed. Another highlight is feed trials where mesopelagic fish is one of the ingredients, and the analyses so far show that feed with mesopelagic raw materials gives the fish an increased appetite and better intestinal health. Further tests will now be carried out on, among other things, environmental toxins tests. Some highlights from 2024: • Research cruises in Frohavet with testing of interaction between unmanned ocean-going platforms, sensor and robot technology, copepod estimation and test fishing of copepods. • Further development of models for calanus in Norwegian waters as well as krill models in the Southern Ocean that are combined with biology models. • Further development of a web portal for fisheries planning. In the web portal, biomass estimates along vessel tracks (towing tracks) are displayed in a map view or the user can take a closer look at time series for continuous variables, as well as available extracts of full echograms. • Large-scale test of trawl configurations. • Analyses of the feed experiments where mesopelagic fish were used in feed for mink and salmon. SFI Harvest is the first center to set itself up along the entire value chain from mapping the biomass to products to market. We attach great importance to our research being transferable to traditional fishing and efforts to combat plastic litter of the ocean, to ensure utility regardless of the outcome of the pioneering work. Follow along and get access to ongoing research results on sfiharvest.no.

The ocean hosts large number of species that could improve food security, but are currently either not harvested or only marginally utilised. SFI Harvest will develop knowledge and technologies for harvesting and processing of lower-trophic marine species to enable sustainable growth of Norway's biomarine industries. It will draw upon Norway's leading position in the ocean and offshore sectors, bringing together pioneering shipowners, key technology providers, producers of aqua feed and -raw materials, SINTEF Ocean and other strong research groups, including SFF AMOS. The centre’s industry partners will form an innovation board to speed up the time-to-market of innovations based on the centre’s activities. The centre integrates six research areas: Survey technology, Ecosystem dynamics, Decision support, Harvesting technology, Product development, and Business models. The main outcomes of the centre’s activities will be sensor technology for cost-efficient mapping and monitoring of marine species, a model predicting good fishing grounds and variability in the ecosystem, decision support allowing fishermen to save fuel and time, predicting catch potential, selective and energy-efficient fishing gears, on-board processing lines for separating the catch by species and preserving quality, rapid catch quality measurement, new land-based feed and food ingredient processes, guidelines for resource allocation and vertical value chain coordination, and a sustainability assessment tool for value chains. This will enable the sustainable harvesting of new marine species and the establishment of a new biomarine value chain. Further, the centre will enable Norway to lead the technological development for the mesopelagic and low-trophic fisheries, creating new global market opportunities for the centre’s industrial partners. The technologies developed will also support cross-over solutions for today's commercial fisheries and for challenges like removing plastic from the oceans.