76 MARCH 2026 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG commercial hatcheries and farms (Figure 4). Feed innovation is another focus area, with efforts directed toward nutritionally balanced and more sustainable formulations that reduce reliance on marine-derived inputs such as fishmeal. These include exploring the suitability and use of local food-industry side streams and by-products as alternative feed ingredients. Disease management and biosecurity are equally critical in high-density systems, with research spanning diagnostics, health management protocols, immune-enhancing feed additives, and vaccine development. One recent example is an epitope-based vaccine targeting Scale Drop Disease Virus (SDDV) in Asian seabass, developed by A*STAR researchers in collaboration with UVAXX. Preliminary reports suggest efficacy of approximately 75% (Tan, 2024), with further planned research to improve characterisation and delivery, and support pilot trials (Figure 5). Beyond fish health, research efforts have also focused on optimising the performance of RAS. One example is work by a National University of Singapore (NUS) research group on simultaneous nitrification–denitrification bacterial consortia and novel microbial bioreactor approaches for nitrogen removal from aquaculture wastewater (Wang and He, 2020). These approaches have the potential to reshape RAS biofilter design by improving nitrogen removal without the need for strictly anoxic conditions (Figure 6). A defining feature of Singapore’s aquaculture strategy is the close integration of research and industry. Within this ecosystem, AquaPolis (aqp.sg) was jointly established by the SFA, NUS and Temasek Life Science Laboratory (TLL) in November 2023 as a national coordinating platform that aligns industry needs with research capabilities across institutions. AquaPolis supports the development of innovative aquaculture research with strong potential for translation into commercial and on-farm applications. Under AquaPolis, long-term, species-focused research programmes address shared industry bottlenecks. For Asian seabass, research efforts target critical production bottlenecks, including broodstock performance, early life-stage survival, and grow-out efficiency. Parallel work on marine tilapia focuses on improving the biological performance and production robustness. Together, these programmes exemplify a coordinated, capability-building approach aimed at delivering industry-wide solutions rather than farm-specific optimisations (Figure 7). Complementing these research programmes, the Aquaculture Technologies Industry Consortium (AquaTIC) serves as a key translational pillar of AquaPolis. The consortium brings together farms, solution providers, and research performers to co-develop and validate deployable technologies under real farm conditions, bridging the gap between proof-of-concept and adoption. By anchoring coordinated trials around industry-defined problem statements, AquaTIC helps to de-risk innovation uptake and accelerate the adoption of new technologies across the sector. Key Challenges and Responses Despite progress, key structural constraints remain. Land scarcity limits physical expansion, while the energy intensity of RAS and environmental control systems continues to pressure farm economics. Coastal farms remain exposed to episodic water-quality FIGURE 4. (Top and bottom) Singapore's technology-driven aquaculture initiatives: National Broodstock Centre (NBC) advancing productivity through R&D and selective breeding programmes. FIGURE 5. (Top) Vaccination of Asian seabass fingerlings; (Bottom) SDDV vaccine development team: Dr Sunita Awate (UVAXX) and Dr Ken Loh (A*STAR).
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