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Jan 16, 2020

AquaBounty, Atlantic Sapphire reveal how they plan to meet surging US salmon demand

At the Future of Food Forum in Gainesville, Florida, on 15 January, seafood industry insiders contended that there will not be enough wild fish to feed the global population in the future. As a result, innovative aquaculture producers are needed to develop sustainable, environmentally-friendly methods to produce greater quantities of fish. At the event, hosted by the University of Florida’s Institute for Sustainable Food Systems, Christina Espejo, Miami, Florida, U.S.A.-based Atlantic Sapphire’s head of human resources and environmental social action plan (ESAP), said her company was expanding to meet rising consumer interest in salmon. “There is a growth in demand in consumption of salmon … It is aquaculture that is innovating and coming up with new ways to supply that demand,” Espejo said. Espejo and AquaBounty President and CEO Sylvia Wulf revealed how the aquaculture firms are producing farmed salmon in a habitat similar to its natural environment – without utilizing antibiotics. “We can’t harvest enough wild caught fish to be able to meet that seafood consumption. Ocean aquaculture has its challenges [including], we are not gaining more licenses. We need wild caught and ocean pen and creating a different way of farming fish, on land in tanks – what AquaBounty and Atlantic Sapphire are doing," she said. “I believe that biotechnology is one of the tools we have to embrace to solve global challenges." Wulf named world hunger and climate change as two of the most pressing issues that biotechnology can help solve.  Read the article.