A replacement of the sub-optimal live feeds used at hatcheries today with a new cryopreserved live diet for the improved and efficient production of juveniles in marine aquaculture

A replacement of the sub-optimal live feeds used at hatcheries today with a new cryopreserved live diet for the improved and efficient production of juveniles in marine aquaculture

The most important innovation in marine fish aquaculture is the improvement of survival rate and development during the larval stage of the fish. Reasons are that the current nutritional quality of most common live food organisms (rotifers and Artemia nauplii) is inadequate leading to high mortality, deformations and sub-optimal growth during the larval phase of these fish species which limit the overall production. This project’s primary objective is to cryopreserve targeted natural zooplankton harvested from the sea, which will be revived for the use as live feed organisms in marine aquaculture. The SME Planktonic has succeeded in cryopreserving marine crustacean nauplii in relatively large scale (entities of up to 200 ml), and to revive them as free swimming organisms (revival rate up to 90%). Because fish larvae are evolutionary adapted to graze on these plankton organisms, it is believed and also documented that it is an optimal diet with respect to nutritional value and performances on the fish growth and survival. Present cryopreservation protocols owned by Planktonic will be further optimized for large scale fish larvae cultivation of both current successful aquaculture species (sea bream and sea bass) and those with requirements of prey of high nutritive value and appropriate size in their early larval phase (e.g. bluefin tuna, long fin yellow tail and Ballan wrasse). Logistics systems for economically feasible shipping of the cryopreserved product within and outside the EU will be assessed, besides procedures for removing market barriers. The world-wide market of Artemia nauplii and rotifers is estimated to about 450 million €. Planktonic is aiming at 10% of this market, which will result in a turnover of 45 million €. Planktonic will in the proposed project perform a feasibility study with the focus of a business plan, potential partners to succeed with the commercialization and evaluate different technologies for up-scaling of the production.