One of the many ways USSEC promotes innovation and development of the global aquaculture industry is through sponsorship of the annual Responsible Seafood Innovation Awards. The awards recognized those finding new solutions to the challenges facing seafood.
The 11th annual Responsible Seafood Innovation Award winners were chosen from finalists in the aquaculture and fisheries categories. The winners were announced during the Global Seafood Alliance’s Responsible Seafood Summit in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, in early October.
“These awards help advance valuable technology and improve best practices for seafood production,” says Lukas Manomaitis, Aquaculture Program Technical Contract for USSEC. “Annually, more than 200 applications from around the are received, and the winners represent some of the most exciting innovations in the industry.”
In the aquaculture category, Aquit, a biotechnology company in Chile, won the 2023 award for a biotech-based additive that boosts the immunity of salmon without the use of antibiotics. The company plans to use the same approach to develop similar supplements for other aquacultured fish.
Zeal Industries, a technology company in Hong Kong, won the 2023 award in the fisheries category for Uptime, basically a black box for fishers and fishing gear. It improves safety by sending out an alert when a fisher leaves the vessel. It can also be applied to gear, reducing the amount of fishing gear lost to the ocean.
“USSEC supports these annual awards to draw attention to innovative efforts that will help meet global demand for responsibly produced seafood,” Manomaitis says. “It’s a privilege to recognize these companies and the rest of the finalists for their contributions to the industry.”
This story was partially funded by U.S. Soy farmers, their checkoff and the soy value chain.
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