There is a growing interest in the development of local aquaculture production throughout Europe. M any initiatives exist, such as indoor penaeid shrimp farming, bivalve and seaweed culture, or restauration of the flat oyster (Ostrea edulis ) reefs in the North Sea . However, one of the common problems across many initiatives is the struggle to source high quality and continuously available starting material , pathogen free and with a suitable genetic background. During the BlueMarine3 .com project, the expertise of Ghent University and six Flemish companies was joined to tackle the challenges related to sourcing material. For this, hatchery protocols for shrimp, bivalves and seaweeds were adapted to the local conditions, keeping in mind economic feasibility and sustainability for the environment. The aim of the project was not only to develop a compact, closed recirculation system for larval production on land considering the high costs for land, labor and energy in Europe; but also to study and to value the synergy between hatchery techniques for the different species in terms of infrastructure, resources, breeding and management ( i.e. a multispecies hatchery concept ).
For shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei ) larval rearing, IMAQUA joined forces with the Ghent University and Proviron to tackle the current bottlenecks. During the project, broodstock diet composition and feeding schedules were optimized. The project revealed that lowering the water temperature by 3°C during the maturation of the broodstock animals, had no impact on the breeding success of the animals (up till PL1) , increasing the economic feasibility of the shrimp hatchery in the European temperate climate. At the level of the larval rearing, several larval diet formulations were finetuned, ensuring high- quality postlarvae through the use of (live) microalgae. Within the project, also several seawater sources were compared, indicating that both natural and artificial seawater can be used to perform high- quality shrimp breeding and production, although the sea salt mixture source must be carefully chosen. The successful cultivation of L. vannamei under conditions more suitable for European realities laid the foundation for the successful development of the European shrimp farming industry. Additionally, this increases the possibility of incorporating L. vannamei into multispecies recirculating systems with colder water species.