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The event gathered over 90 stakeholders and delivered 14 innovations for a more resilient aquaculture
The French company Seaducer announced proudly that has won the NewTechAqua innovation award, which aims to develop new tools and strategies for sustainable European aquaculture. Last week, the members of the company went to Brussels, Belgium, to attend the awards ceremony that gathered over 90 stakeholders and delivered 14 innovations for a more resilient aquaculture, and received the first prize.
During its final conference, NewTechAqua announced the highest-scoring project, Roll’Oyster by Seaducer, from France, as the winner. The Roll’Oyster is a cutting-edge technology to produce outstanding oysters all year around by reducing tiresome tasks and optimizing production costs. 47 proposals from all around the world were submitted and evaluated by NewTechAqua Committee of Experts, coordinated by the Spanish Institute of Agrifood Research and Technology (IRTA).
The Roll’Oyster is a patented automated, connected, and mechanized production system for oyster farming. It is currently aimed at oyster farmers wishing to produce oysters in ponds of salt marshes or all types of protected and/or confined areas as lagoons, tanks, etc.
This system can be used on all stages of development of oysters leaving the hatchery: from the nursery stage, through pre-growing to commercial size and fattening. It allows oysters to be farmed completely independently with controlled work regimes requiring no physical labor under optimized culture conditions.
The culture concept around the Roll’Oyster, explained from NewTechAqua, involves a main equipment allowing the rolling and the exposure of the oysters at will, but also in parallel the use of additional equipment optimizing the circulation (paddle wheel / air-lift), the aeration and the homogenization (air-lift) of the water culture as well as the continuous monitoring of the physic and chemical parameters of the water. This innovative farming concept requires little energy, and an autonomous photovoltaic renewable energy supply system is also available.
Tools and strategies
NewTechAqua project has organized its final conference on tools and strategies for a sustainable, resilient and innovative European aquaculture on 15th November in Brussels and online. The event was hosted by Greenovate! Europe in collaboration with the University of Bologna and the Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP) and gathered professionals to discuss the challenges and opportunities for the future of the European aquaculture.
After the event, the members of Seaducer expressed their “deep gratitude” to the NewTechAqua team for their “trust and support throughout our project”. “We would also like to congratulate all the projects that also applied to this award and we encourage them in their future development so that aquaculture becomes more ecological and more sustainable for the food of today and tomorrow,” they added in a communicate.
Bringing new technologies into the aquaculture sector offers a range of benefits that are transforming the industry and driving its growth. As they said, NewTechAqua launched an Award Challenge to look for disruptive solutions that bring economic, environmental, and social advantages.
Improving the resilience of the sector
NewTechAqua presented 14 innovations to improve the resilience of the sector and provided policy recommendations that contribute to enhancing EU regulations. Legislative barriers, circularity, fish feed, organic aquaculture and diversification were some of the topics discussed in high level policy roundtables, including the participation of the Directorate-General for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries (DG MARE), and the European Aquaculture Technology and Innovation Platform (EATiP).
In the last 4 years, the NewTechAqua partners have identified, tested, and evaluated the effectiveness of new tools that improve the production and, at the same time, the sustainability of the sector. 14 innovations were presented covering several species, such as seabream, seabass, greater amberjack, grey mullet, meagre, salmon, mussel, oyster and microalgae.
The use of novel ingredients for aquafeeds; the valorization of fish co-products into innovative ingredients; and new approaches for enhancing reproduction and maturation; are some examples of the innovations presented. Some of the achievements are already on the market and are being used on a commercial scale. Others are in an early development stage and will serve to further advance in future projects.
