ASC annual UK Awards go to Fish Said Fred, Sainsbury's and Lyons Seafoods

October 17, 2024 - In recognition of responsible seafood farming in the United Kingdom, Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) held the fourth annual UK Awards in partnership with the Marine Stewardship Council at The Box in Plymouth, on October 16.

Now in its second year, the ASC Brand of the Year award was picked up by Fish Said Fred. With a commitment to source 100 percent ASC certified farmed seafood, Sainsbury's won the ASC UK Retailer of the Year award for an impressive third year in a row and Lyons Seafoods bagged the ASC UK Retail Supplier of the Year award.

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ASC CEO Chris Ninnes said, "Congratulations to Sainsbury's, Fish Said Fred and Lyons Seafoods for their well deserved wins! These awards acknowledge the significant effort it takes for a retailer, brand and supplier to deliver 100 percent commitment to only sell responsibly produced seafood in the UK every single day.

"As ASC grows within the UK, I hope that these commitments become the norm in the UK as they are in other markets and will encourage more local processors, farmers and retailers to join us in this journey to transform the seafood farming sector towards more sustainable practices."

The UK Awards aim to promote companies that make the greatest impact in driving sustainability within the seafood industry and boost consumer demand for ASC labelled seafood. The winning businesses meet the strictest requirements for responsibly farmed seafood that's been produced with care for people and our planet.

ASC UK Brand of the Year

Fish said Fred, a company owned by New England Seafood International , was crowned the ASC UK Brand of the Year for their range of ASC labelled seafood products, and for their active promotion and involvement in the ASC programme. This category awards the brand making the greatest impact in driving and meeting consumer demand for certified responsible seafood.

Ruth Hoban, Head of Sustainability at New England Seafood International, said "Fish said Fred is delighted to receive this recognition. We continuously strive to go above and beyond across our organisation and the ASC certification supports us to do that"

"We are proud to promote responsibly sourced seafood products to seafood lovers who are increasingly aware and concerned about the provenance, ethics and sustainability of the food they buy. Taking care from sea to plate, we also thank our dedicated farming partners to consistently deliver responsibly sourced seafood to the tough standards of the ASC."

ASC UK Retailer of the Year

Sainsbury's has been the consistent winner of the ASC UK Retailer of the Year Award with their 100 percent commitment to sourcing ASC certified farmed seafood. This Award goes to the retailer that has the largest share of ASC labelled seafood products in store and online.

David Parker, Head of Aquaculture and Fisheries at Sainsbury's said, "We're very proud to have won this award for the third year in a row. Responsibly sourced seafood is something we are passionate about and it's fantastic to get this recognition for the range of ASC labelled product available in our stores. We look forward to continuing our work with the ASC to expand this range even more, as it means a lot to us to offer responsibly farmed seafood to our customers. It's a huge team effort to make this possible, so this award is really for everyone involved."

ASC UK Retail Supplier of the Year

The ASC UK Retail Supplier of the Year awarded to Lyons Seafoods, based on nominations by UK retail. This Award recognises the winner's role in expanding the availability of certified responsible seafood and meeting growing consumer demand. 

Lyons Seafoods Managing Director Mark Newton said, "Lyons Seafoods is delighted to have received the ASC UK Retail Supplier of the Year Award 2024. This award acknowledges the amazing work carried out by our dedicated farming partners and the team at Lyons Seafoods towards responsible aquaculture for now and well into the future.

"It is fantastic to be recognised by UK retail for the work we do in aquaculture. Partnering with long-term suppliers, we are able to continuously drive improvements in the industry which are acknowledged through the standards set by the ASC."

Growing range of ASC labelled seafood

Maud van den Haspel, ASC General Manager for the UK and Benelux, said, "The ASC awards are a fantastic opportunity for us to acknowledge and reward the hard work that our winning partners have put in over the past year to offer a growing range of ASC labelled seafood to seafood lovers in the UK."

In 2024, demand for ASC labelled seafood continued to grow and there are now 774 ASC labelled products available across the UK - a 17 percent increase since October 2023.

Reflecting this growing consumer demand, 76 farm sites in the UK are now ASC certified - representing a 55 percent increase since October 2023. Five more farms are in the initial audit stage, with the aim of being certified by the end of 2024.

Previous winners of the ASC UK Awards include retailers Sainsbury's and Lidl, retail supplier New England Seafood International and the seafood brand Mowi.

For more information, visit HERE.

The Aquaculturists

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AquaFarm 2025 joins NovelFarm & AlgaeFarm

October 15, 2024 - AquaFarm, the International conference & trade show on aquaculture and sustainable fishing industry announced the dates for the eighth edition and joins forces with NovelFarm & AlgaeFarm, the exhibitions dedicated to controlled environment agriculture and cultivation of algae and other microorganisms. The events are scheduled February 12-13, at Pordenone Exhibition Centre.

The decision to bring together the three events dedicated to innovation in sustainable food production comes from the increasingly strong synergy between the three sectors. Aquaculture and hydroponics are closely intertwined in aquaponics, the cultivation and breeding in the same controlled environment of fish and plants, but also molluscs, algae and mushrooms, building artificial ecosystems where the waste of one species constitutes the nourishment of another, with high food productivity. Fish farming and algaculture are also increasingly becoming synergetic, just consider the importance of microalgae in the production of fish feed with zero impact on ocean resources.

The common thread linking the three events is environmental change. For aquaculture and shellfish farming, the leading players of AquaFarm, the modification of aquatic habitats due to climate, man-made pollution and the intrusion of new species brought in by sea trade have already had major impacts, such as the very serious losses in shellfish production, especially clams, due to the blue crab. Farmers, suppliers and research centres are engaged in a unanimous effort to find mitigations to these phenomena.

Controlled environment cultivation has one of its main raisons d'être and its main economic strength in its reduced impact on the natural system. It is not just a matter of saving water and nutrients and eliminating the use of agrochemicals. By disconnecting cultivation from the soil, a farm can be installed close to places of consumption, reducing the impact of the logistics chain, resulting in less pollution, energy consumption and congestion. It is also worth remembering that the stage of the food chain where there is the most loss and waste is transport. Less transport therefore equals less waste of food.

Cultivated algae are a virtuous response to environmental changes as well, as they allow proteins, fats (such as Omega-3) and active ingredients to be produced directly, without the need to obtain them from animal or plant sources higher up the trophic chain, with less impact and greater efficiency.

Not everything will turn out to be related to climate in the upcoming edition. Aquaculture and shellfish farming guarantee good, healthy, more controlled and short-chain food when produced in Italy. Products from vertical farms are better in every aspect than comparable from traditional techniques: no residues, constant and perfectly controlled organoleptic characteristics, no contaminants such as nickel and other heavy metals. Microalgae makes active ingredients such as antioxidants and useful materials for the pharmaceutical, food and fine chemicals industries available at lower costs than traditional sources.

Climate research and innovation will be discussed in Pordenone, but also self-production of energy in livestock farms including farms when controlled environment, animal welfare, technologies and animal/human nutrition, reducing the use of plastics. The packed conference program will flank an international exhibition area. Another important theme will be the use of artificial intelligence and autonomous robotics in numerous fields, from breeding and crop management to genetic improvement. Also confirmed the area dedicated to universities with the possibility of exhibiting scientific posters and the show cooking Arena, where national production excellence can be tasted.

For more information and to register, visit HERE.

The Aquaculturists

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DNA modelling drives seabed sampling evolution

October 15, 2024 - A new environemental-DNA (e-DNA) approach for monitoring the seabed conditions around marine fish farms could significantly speed ip the assessment of sediment samples, enabling salmon producers and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) to gather timely, accurate information to demonstrate environmental impact and recovery.

Marine benthic invertebrates are essential for maintaining the natural ecosystem, helping to process biomass and protect the health of farmed and wild fish. These sediment-dwelling animals can also act as bioindicators of the effects of human activity on seabed health. Because of this, they are monitored by SEPA and operators of marine fish farms to ensure that farms are operating sustainably.

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Previously, benthic monitoring relied on scientists painstakingly picked out all the invertebrate animals from samples of seabed sediments and then identifying each animal with the aid of microscopes. However, the process can take up to three days for a single sample and estimates suggest that it is costing the aquaculture sector up to £1 million per year.

An alternative, faster and more cost-effective process is now available, drawing upon DNA techniques first used in human forensics to identify the organisms preset in sediment samples. Scientists have used metabarcoding - a technique that cross references samples against a sequence database to identify different species - to identify thousands of bacterial species simultaneously.

After gathering a sample, the bacteria present in the sediment is first characterised using DNA, with a machine learning model then applied to predict the health of invertebrate community based on the bacteria. The Infaunal Quality Index (IQI) - a well established ecological quality benchmark - is then used to classify the health of the invertebrate community.

Following an extensive six-year project, samples analysed using the new method are now being presented to SEPA for validation, with an open-source toolkit and standard operating procedures also being created for anyone in the sector to use.

The research was supported by the Sustainable Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC), Institute of Biodiversity and Freshwater Conservation at UHI Inverness, Mowi (Scotland), SEPA, University of Kaiserslautern in Germany, Scottish Sea Farms, Salmon Scotland and lead research partner, the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS).

Stephen Macintyre, Head of Environment at Mowi Scotland, said: "Demonstrating good environmental performance at our sites is critical, both for our customers and for compliance reasons. At the moment, we sample the seabed followed by sieving and sorting sediment to identify species, but it is a time-consuming, labour-intensive process that hasn't been updated for 30 years or so.

"As an alternative, the DNA-based approach will enable us to understand our environmental performance much quicker, almost in real time, and take action where required to improve the environmental picture. Environmental DNA is already widely used elsewhere for nature-based assessments and also has the potential to be applied to assess the wider marine biodiversity that exists around our fish farms. The practical outputs from this project are very promising, and we are now in talks with SEPA about integrating DNA-based compliance assessments into our site monitoring programme."

Technical components of the research, including DNA sequencing, data analysis and statistics, and the development of a machine-learning algorithm to predict the IQI of samples based on their bacterial characterisation, were independently reviewed by Biostatistics Scotland.

Sarah Riddle, Director of Innovation and Engagement at SAIC, added: "This project has been years in the making and it is great to see the results of a long-term collaboration between the sector, academia and regulators having the potential to transform a key aspect of aquaculture monitoring. E-DNA sampling could provide widespread benefits to both the aquaculture sector and its regulators, with potential for this approach to be adopted across the global by seafood producing nations. Armed with data, producers can be better informed to make decisions around key environmental and fish health factors influenced by the seabed."

Peter Pollard, Head of Ecology at SEPA, said: "The MeioMetBar Project has been an important and successful collaboration. It is truly the beginning of a step change in our ability and that of fish farm operators to cost-effectively assess, manage and regulate the effects on seabed life of fish farm discharges and so help protect the health and biodiversity of Scotland's seas.

"The research is an example of the rapid innovation now taking place in more efficient and effective ways of monitoring the environment. Work is already underway to expand and enhance the capabilities of the method developed by the project, with the next-generation method expected to be available in 2025."

For more information, visit HERE.

The Aquaculturists

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