Salmon farms pack on mussels
Published Monday December 1st, 2008
Aquaculture Researchers show how seaweed and shellfish can boost sustainability
Thierry Chopin and Shawn Robinson have proven that environmental management brings companies cash.
The two University of New Brunswick researchers have worked with Cooke Aquaculture Inc. and Acadian Seaplants Ltd. for nearly seven years in surrounding salmon cages with seaweed and mussels, which filter fish food leftovers and nutrient waste and serve as new marketable products.
The research team is putting to use about $280,000 in synergy awards doled out this fall from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada for the project to hire post-doctorate fellows and continue with market research potential for its ecosystem, called integrated multi-trophic aquaculture, or polyculture.
The funding will be paired with ongoing money from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency's innovate fund.
The companies see real economic benefits to both diversifying their products and branding themselves as eco-friendly above the academic discoveries that are emerging.
Cooke Aquaculture's spokeswoman Nell Halse said multi-trophic aquaculture is helping her company qualify its operations for an eco-certification label through a company well-known around the globe.
"Our customers and the retailers are looking for some kind of proof we're an environmentally sustainable company," she said.
"The market research shows people are willing to pay a premium for sustainable products."
Halse said that although the company has underwater cameras monitoring salmon feeding so food is not wasted, there is still some nutrient unloading in the water, which is bad for the environment.
Applications are in to the provincial government to expand Cooke's number of Bay of Fundy salmon-growing sites with seaweed and mussels from four to 12.
In May the team finally persuaded the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, after seven years of data that proves mussels and seaweed grown near salmon are safe to eat, to change legislation allowing commercial sale of the products.
The seaweed and mussels grown through the project will be advertised for the first time at the Boston's international seafood show next March.
Chopin said the companies will be the first to tap into the growing market potential, adding that the system his team is employing is a simply lesson in business.
"Economically it makes sense because you are diversifying your portfolio," he said, comparing multi-trophic aquaculture with how farmers produce many agricultural products.
"It's very risky to just have one crop."
Thierry said multi-trophic aquaculture is not new.
The Japanese and Chinese have been using the system for centuries to create balanced ecosystems.
But he said large-scale fish farming has meant a rejection of the use of seaweed and other organisms to such a degree that he has given lectures abroad for years to cultures that started the concept.
"They didn't realize that the kelps (seaweed) weren't just a crop, they were also environmental services, which are to be nutrient scrubbers," Chopin said.
"At the present time, nobody puts an economic value on environmental services," he said.
Robinson, who also works for the Fisheries and Oceans Canada in St. Andrews, believes the mussels can be marketed as specialty health food products, netting the companies more money.
The mussels - thanks to filtering leftover salmon food particles -grow 46 per cent larger than normal mussels and have registered up to 30 per cent higher in healthy omega-3 fatty acids.
Market research conducted in New York by Ipsos Reid and Cooke showed consumers are willing to pay up to $4 per pound for the sustainable and nutritious mussels, more than three times the average cost of mussels in the grocery store.
With the new funding, Chopin and Robinson are also studying the bioactive properties of their salmon and seaweed.
Robinson wants to look more into research showing that extracts from mussels contain natural pharmaceuticals good for arthritis and other ailments related to inflammation and antiviral properties.
"You don't necessarily have to grow things just for food," Robinson said.
Chopin wants to see what cosmetic properties he could identify in the large brown seaweed he is growing, known as kelp.
Alan Critchley, the vice-president of research at Acadian Seaplants, said his company is interested in the unique properties seaweed grown alongside salmon farms offers to "higher-level" nutriceutical or whole foods markets particularly in Asia, where seaweed is consumed as a dietary staple.
Acadian currently has a plant science division that sells seaweed for horticultural and agricultural buyers, an animal science side that sells products for animal feeds, a company division that markets seaweed ingredients as botanicals and health foods and a food side that sells whole plants as seaweed salads.
Research has shown the seaweed draped over long strands of rope near salmon nets grows 50 per cent larger than in the wild from consuming the dissolved nitrogen, phosphorous and other nutrients excreted through fish gills.
"At the end of the day, we're looking for new products," Critchley said, adding if the project continues to prove success, he sees salmon farmers and other fish growers worldwide adopting its model and incorporating seaweed into growing.
"The fish we eat in the future will come from aquaculture and we will have to balance those environmental effects," Critchley said.
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