Women in Aquaculture Science

By Jessica Petereit

Hi, my name is Jessica and I’m currently working as a PhD student in Aquaculture at the Alfred-Wegener Institute (AWI) in Bremerhaven.

During my Master thesis on marine biodiversity and conservation, I realized that the increasing world population couldn’t be sustainably feed by wild caught fish alone, which sparked my motivation to give my contribution to the field of sustainable seafood production.

Feeling the urge to work in an area where I can actually contribute to move forward to more sustainable outcomes, I started looking for job postings in aquaculture and was lucky to be accepted in the GAIN project.

pipetting plasm for further analysis.jpg — Preparing turbot blood samples.

I know from colleagues in other institutes that aquaculture research and production is mostly male-dominated. Despite this fact, from my experience at AWI we are equally distributed in the aquaculture science department. Even though the experimental facilities lack the presence of women completely (so far!) I’ve never felt uncomfortable.

Despite this, many women in the field work in supporting the hands-on work before experiments start, therefore seeing women, even though they are not directly employed in the facility, is not uncommon.

I helped with the set-up of all my tanks for the experiment, built tubes and ventilation systems mostly on my own and was responsible when the fish arrived. All staff members were very helpful and patient, despite my short experience with aquaculture at that stage.

From my experience I don’t think women will have any problems in aquaculture science in Germany as long as they do not mind to catch and sample fish, maintain and clean tanks or to get dirty while building new tank equipment.

Beer from oysters

By: Joshua Kyle

Walled City Brewery is an independent brewery in Londonderry which prides itself in providing patrons with a ’taste of the North West‘ by crafting local, authentic, premium quality, flavoursome beer and food. Inspired by Guinness’ suggested serving of oysters with stout, the challenge was laid down to the brewers to develop a beer using local Lough Foyle oysters and so Foyster Stout was born.

As with all great challenges, research was needed before jumping into the beer-making by looking to other breweries such as Maine’s ’Out-To-Sea‘ imperial stout in the USA or Dublin’s own Porterhouse’s beer, ’Oyster Stout‘.

A sustainably sourced supply of oysters was required for the beer and that’s why we selected the Lough Foyle Irish Flat oyster—the Loughs Agency, operated jointly by Ireland and Northern Ireland, has worked extensively on this species, as have members of the GAIN team. The oysters were sourced from licensed farmers—it is vital for us and for our customers that we use the best ingredients from sustainable suppliers.

The use of the oyster had a dual purpose in the brewing process. Firstly, the flesh was used in the mashing process which extracts natural sugars—the flesh gives a fantastic marine essence to these sugars. Secondly, the shells contain a high amount of calcium carbonate which is used as clarifying agent of the beer. This ensures every part of the oyster is used and nothing is wasted.

The Walled City Brewery launched the beer on 12^th October, 2019 which was widely well received. It will be going on sale as a seasonal beer and Foyster Stout will be available in selected bars and restaurants in the city. We’re grateful to the Loughs Agency for their support in our development of this new beer which will help raise awareness for the Flat Oyster.

The Future of Aquaculture

By: Remigiusz Panicz

‘The Future of aquaculture’ was the overarching motif of the international conference held in Kudowa Zdrój, Poland between 25 and 27 September of 2019. Fish farmers, scientists and other stakeholders had a unique opportunity to participate in the science-grounded lectures and follow-up discussions both devoted to the aspects and problems of the aquaculture sector

Among these current and future concerns, are animal welfare, the diversification of aquaculture, certification models, climate change and diseases risk. GAIN’s partners Remigiusz Panicz, Jacek Sadowski and Piotr Eljasik, from ZUT introduced participants of the conference to the GAIN project, its objectives and provided its vision on common carp eco-intensification.

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This species, whose culture has a long tradition in Poland, currently struggles due to numerous factors: water scarcity, unfavorable policy, and market uptake. The freshwater farmed fish sector seeks for viable solutions to keep carp farming on a profitable level.

During the conference an interesting voice was raised regarding precision aquaculture: a direction which is unavoidable in order to cope with the aforementioned factors. Aspects of macroalgae culture in Polish coastline waters was also presented and discussed: this interesting idea is developing into a new project being launched in Poland this year.

Numerous aspects of circular economy in the Polish aquaculture sector were also raised and discussed openly: energy efficiency, regulations, and management of by-products and waste streams, and pertinent questions related to carp meat supply throughout the whole year.

The eco-intensification and precision aquaculture work developed in GAIN, coordinated with the efforts of stakeholders, might bring solutions for the future of carp farming in Poland.

The day of a fish

By Caitlin Stockwell:

Have you ever wondered what the day of a fish looks like? Or what leads to their decision making? Well I have always been curious, and I turned that curiosity into a career path.

I am a PhD student at Dalhousie University studying fish behavior in aquaculture using acoustics. Now what does that actually mean? There are many ways to study fish behavior from putting tags into a fish and tracking an individual’s movement, to using sound to track an entire populations movement. I use both in my research to help understand different aspects of where fish swim and why.

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To make a complicated technology simple, I use acoustics (sounds in the water) to send a sound signal up into the cage and, depending what type of sound is returned, will determine the amount of fish and their location in the cage. This information can be extremely useful to fish farmers as it can help them determine when to start and stop feeding, as well as how their fish respond to other environmental conditions (such as storms or harmful algae blooms).

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The aim of studying fish movement is to help farmers better understand their fish and assist them in mitigating any stress that could impact the fish’s well-being. By providing this information, we can help make happier, healthier fish to help feed our growing population.

Women in aquaculture science

By Gabriella Pereira:

I started my life in aquaculture science as an intern while undertaking my undergrad ten years ago. I took my undergrad course in Aquaculture Engineering at the Federal University of Santa Catarina in Florianopolis, Brazil, the same institution where I also took my M.Sc. degree in Aquaculture.

At that time, I was the first girl in a microbiology laboratory lead and run by men. In general, this was also normal: there were fewer female professors at the university when compared to the number of male professionals. In comparison to nowadays, this ratio in faculty staff has shifted to almost half in Brazil.

Afterwards I applied for a Science Without Borders program from the Brazilian Government and took my PhD in the UK, more specifically at the University of Plymouth. After four years my PhD´s supervisor invited me to participate as a Research Associate Post Doc in a project financed by Innovate UK. That was officially my first career position.

In the UK, during the 5 years spent there (4 years PhD and first year Post Doctorate program), I could also see a change in the female/male ratio in biology school. However, in aquaculture there are still more men as undergrad and master students, a tendency which is also transparent in early career scientists.

Women in Aquaculture1 — Gabriella working at the lab with Pirarucu’s (Arapaima gigas) samples.

A few issues and questions have contributed to this scenario. Planning personal life is the main one. For example, the aquaculture environment where you work with live animals is difficult to plan: when is the next experiment? When will it start? Fish supply is just one key point that we could mention. The lack of opportunities and facilities focused in pregnant women or who have month-old babies is another issue. In some cases, they are unable to attend conferences or courses due to this.

In this context, an interesting contribution comes from Brazil’s curriculum vitae platform: now it’s allowed for women to add to their CV the time spent in parental leave(1) where their contribution decreases drastically due to their crucial parental role. This is a huge step forward in Brazilian academic society, due to the fact that the role of mothers, parents and caretakers is traditionally seen as non-productive time (or leisure) by society (and academic society as well). As we move towards decreasing trends in birth rates, the role of children will hopefully be better valued by society.

As a young woman and researcher working in the aquaculture sector, I believe that we have our space in several roles in the industry and academia. However, until there is still sexism (and unfortunately this includes men and women), we should debate gender equality in the Aquaculture environment. I will be the first one to keep raising this flag.

GoodFish

By: André Lopes

As consumers what do we look for in our food? Something tasty, that we like, want and are able to find in our towns and cities. We look for healthy options, at least as far as we are able or willing to go. Fish – or shellfish – either farmed or wild mostly fits such criteria, especially when compared to other available animal protein sources.

We also want safe seafood, which is nowadays commonly available at most supermarkets, fish markets and even online. For most consumers on top of these considerations is the most important factor: cost. A fish that would check all of these boxes at a reasonable price, could be considered to be a GoodFish.

Although these aspects shape our choices, other considerations have entered our plates recently: now we also want our fish to be fed, grown, processed and transported sustainably – in its three-pronged meaning: ecological, social and economic.

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Inside each of these three aspects of sustainability resides a multitude of components which include genuine concerns such as animal welfare, gender equality, environmental protection and waste reduction objectives which fuel the implementation of circular economy principles.

Coupled with these recent requests (and partially originated by them) also stems a demand for higher trust in the food we purchase, hence the growth in innovative technologies who enable companies to increase the traceability and transparency of their supply chains, and empower us, consumers, (ideally) to also bask in the benefits of such tools. Shortly: we want to know more about what we eat so we can shape our consumption knowingly.

On the other side of this “coin” we have: 1. Regulators seeking to create conditions that promote sustainable practices; and 2. The seafood industry, who keeps providing an ever-increasing amount of fish and shellfish to our plates, while providing livelihoods to millions of people.

In order to figure out how to breed higher quantities of fish with less environmental impacts, while not trampling over animal welfare or human rights, could be (in fact is) a tough, reachable and critical task. That is why innovations stemming from science and businesses that can help us reach these goals will play a role. In working together and combining them we can reach that sweet spot: a GoodFish.

VALORIZATION OF AQUACULTURE BY-PRODUCTS: BEYOND OF FISH MEAL PRODUCTION

By: Xosé Antón Vázquez Álvarez

Industrially implemented in northern Europe (mainly Iceland and Scandinavia) a century ago to manage herring fishery wastes, the production of fish meal and fish oils were – and still are – traditional ways of valorizing by-products generated by the fishing industry. Extensible also to the co-products produced in the de-heading, gutting and filleting of the heads, viscera and frames of farmed fish (salmon, trout or sea bass), fish meal plays a fundamental role in the productive system of the aquaculture industry as final receptors (managers) of their wastes, and producers of the aforementioned compounds. The market value of fish meal is a function of its level of protein, and fish oils are more valued the higher the concentration of omega-3 fatty acids, especially docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Both products are essential ingredients in aquaculture feed formulations.

However, other alternatives and processes of valorization can be applied to these substrates: the production of fish protein hydrolysates (FPHs) and marine peptones generated from all wastes, the recovery of collagen and gelatin from the skins or hydroxyapatites of the fish bones. Within the framework of the GAIN project, the Marine Research Institute (IIM-CSIC, Vigo, Spain) is developing and optimizing these alternatives, initially on a lab scale, and scaling some of them in the pilot plant available in the IIM-CSIC. The raw materials studied are heads, trimmings, frames and viscera from rainbow trout, salmon, turbot and carp.

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In the first case, the production of FPHs consists in the application of proteases, mainly exogenous, to the mixing of the crushed wastes with water working under optimal experimental conditions (pH, T, enzyme concentration, etc.) for the adequate enzymatic hydrolysis of the substrates. The solid hydrolysates generated after the separation of the bones and oils present in the initial substrates and the drying process are a highly digestible protein-rich material, with a varied set of peptides of different sizes, in some cases with certain bioactive properties and better nutritional characteristics than the fish meal used as ingredient in aquaculture feed. It is in this direction where the application of the FPHs produced in the IIM-CSIC will be focused: the preparation by SPAROS of new formulations for aquaculture feed based, among other ingredients, on FPH’s. Additionally, hydrolysates from individuals of blue whiting discarded by European fishing fleets and which must be landed to the ports following the new EU fishing policy (Landing Obligation) will also be evaluated in salmonids feed.

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The second of the examples consists in the production of marine peptones from the FPHs after stages of autoclaving and centrifugation. These fluids rich in protein material should be a source of organic nitrogen of great potential in the formulation of nutritive media for the cultivation of bacteria with important technological applications (probiotics, dairy starters, producers of bacteriocins and lactic acid, etc.). On the other hand, collagen and gelatins that can be recovered from fish skins, combining different chemical, enzymatic and thermal purification/extraction steps, could be biomaterials of interest in pharmacological, nutraceutical and food sectors. Finally, thermally processed clean bones of muscular debris, should have a composition rich in calcium phosphates with possibilities of application as a food supplement, incorporated into fertilizers or as bioapatites for bone regeneration.

We hope that the processes that will be developed within GAIN will lead to other alternatives, economically more profitable, for the management of aquaculture by-products beyond the well-established production of fish meal.