Cultivated barnacle offspring – the solution for realizing marine aquaculture growth

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High hopes are pinned on aquaculture to meet rising worldwide demand for quality seafood. EU aquaculture was worth €4bn in 2015, but it has recently lost global market share. This is partly because commercially-farmed marine finfish have complex larval feeding needs that are not met today. The global market for farmed shrimp is also hindered by low hatchery phase survival and disease costing €7bn in Asia-Pacific alone in 2011-2. Larval nutrition must improve to unlock sustainable economic production and increase yields. The offspring of common barnacles are an important feed for marine larvae in the wild. Optimising our radical new system to cultivate large amounts of barnacles, we will commercialise our superior live feed based on barnacle offspring, MaxiPlan. This supports crucial early-stage larval development of marine finfish and crustacea in aquaculture. MaxiPlan slashes infection and saves each hatchery up to €5.5m / year. With a 250-times higher level of bioavailable marine fatty acids, MaxiPlan will revolutionise larval nutrition. It increases growth by up to 75% and survival by 100% or more. Large-scale pilots will be at a commercial EU marine finfish hatchery and a big player in the South American shrimp farming industry. Refined barnacle cultivation and streamlined production will let us supply MaxiPlan at large-scale. We will expand our direct sales network in the EU marine finfish aquaculture sector and work with select distributors to supply shrimp hatcheries worldwide. Commercial roll-out will yield €43m cumulative revenues and €26m profits in the 5 years after launch up to 2025. We will reach a 930% return on investment, save the global marine aquaculture sector €650m, and cut 385 metric tonnes of CO2 (eq) from the industrial carbon footprint of European aquaculture by 2025. The MAXIPLAN project will support sustainable and self-sufficient seafood production and help create a new €2.9bn shrimp aquaculture market in Europe by 2027.