Aquaculture Technology Trends

Blue Ocean Ventures

Nov 12, 2024

2 min read

Before we dive into our scenarios that intersect technology trends with climate change over the coming articles, let's start with a brief background on how we have categorised technology trends into two main groups:

“Extreme Tech” vs “Adaptation Tech”

1. Extreme Tech - This category includes innovative approaches to food production that may have a slower acceptance rate under normal circumstances. Examples include technologies related to autonomous remote farming in the deep sea, fully integrated automated hybrid systems for animal and plant food production, cultured meat, 3D-printed food, and biotechnological gene editing of food sources.

2. Adaptation Tech - This category focuses on gradual adaptations and increased efficiencies in today's methods of production. It primarily involves the full adoption of Industry 4.0 in manufacturing processes, demand-driven production, reduction of inputs (such as energy and feed), and optimising growth based on advanced traditional biological approaches, including breeding and feeding.

From a technological perspective, both categories are highly intriguing, and there are some truly fascinating developments occurring in each. The question is more about which of the approaches under development will have a bigger relevance or impact in the future.

Below are some examples to illustrate where the coming years will take us.

Extreme Tech

Adaptation Tech

Do it differently

Do what we do - just better

Artificial (enclosed) growth systems (on-shore, urban, desert)

Establish high-intensity techniques in areas that are not high-intensity yet (including knowledge transfer approaches)

Autonomous remote farming (deep-sea, off-shore)

Integrated Co-culture with plants in combined automated production systems (& seawater adaptation of plants)

Digitalisation -> Data-driven supply chain & process automation from Hatchery to consumer

Lab-grown/cultured meat

Precise demand forecasting and production

Additive/3D-printed food production

Constant and reliable production

Genetic modification of species using gene-editing (or accelerated “traditional” breeding / evolutionary methods):

Fully transparent and optimised supply chain

Reduced Energy consumption and emissions (Production and Logistics)

Microfermentation of nutrients

Decentralised or in-transit manufacturing/maturation

Faster trait “selection”

Augmentation of natural products with new traits

Reduced water and feed consumption

“Grow at home” Systems

Reduced waste-loss

Biology:

Genetics assisted breeding

Rapid pathogen detection and disease treatment

Improved feed composition and technologies