In a scenario where global food systems are being challenged due to the expected population growth, together with resource impoverishment and other environmental constraints, seafood has been identified as a vital source of food and a key component of a healthy diet. Nonetheless, decades of unsustainable overfishing practices are depleting aquatic ecosystems at a time when nearly one-fifth of all animal protein consumed by humans comes from seafood, reason why aquaculture has gained traction over wild fisheries. However, intensified aquaculture raises environmental and resource-related questions, mainly due to waste-streams, dependence on wild fisheries for aquafeed, disease outbreaks and the potential introduction of invasive species resulting from escapes (for instance in case of near-shore systems) in ecosystems where they do not belong.
INNOAQUA’s main objective is to pave the path towards the upcoming sustainable and diversified EU land-based aquaculture industry by leaning on the demonstration and mainstreaming of innovative algae-based food and solutions, using ecology, circularity and digitalization approaches.
This presentation deals with two specific goals of the project, a) to implement an ecosystem approach for sustainable management of aquaculture production and b) to demonstrate tools to limit the waste in aquaculture cultivation and processing. In practical terms, these objectives are achieved through the implementation of an IMTA system at SEA EIGHT ’s commercial hatchery in northern Portugal. An area with over 200m2 of macroalgae productive area (mainly for Ulva and Gracilaria) is being installed by A4F, to handle approximately 40m3 of effluent from SEA EIGHT’s Recirculated Aquaculture System (RAS) . The SMART-IMTA includes the development and implementation of two main digital innovations by INESC TEC: (i ) a novel Multisensing Module allowing for real time water quality monitoring and; (ii) a Digital Twin Backbone (DTB) that will facilitate the ingestion, transformation and storage of the data flows and make them accessible to other processes. Ultimately this technology will allow the management of the macroalga e production component without the permanent action of a seaweed expert, contributing significantly towards the implementation of the IMTA concept in other commercial RAS.