ASTRAL – All Atlantic Ocean Sustainable, Profitable and Resilient Aquaculture
ASTRAL aims to define, support and promote sustainable aquaculture production in the Atlantic area, focusing on Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA).
In IMTA, aquatic species from different trophic levels are farmed together (fish, mollusc, crustacean, echinoderms & algae species), where waste from one species are used as fertilisers and/or food for other species.
The project addresses sustainability along a strong Climate-Ocean-Food value chain. It links expected environmental risks to cost-efficiency, IMTA production best practices and food safety. This sustainability target is supported by technological innovations which provide an improved capability of observing and monitoring three main environmental risks: two are evaluated in light of climate change (HAB and pathogens) and one as an emerging pollutant (microplastics). As a result, concrete recommendations on region-specific monitoring programmes will be established. Additionally, circularity and reduced waste will be evaluated for ASTRAL’s different IMTA production systems in order to provide recommendations on best practices towards zero waste.
Furthermore, ASTRAL aims to significantly contribute to the implementation of the Belém statement, and create a long-term collaborative ecosystem. An ecosystem that will originate from the project consortium and later expand to the entire Atlantic.
Project’s website: www.astral-project.eu .
ATLANTIC AQUACULTURE NETWORK
The Atlantic Aquaculture Network, in the context of ASTRAL, is the effort to gather stakeholders and exert networking influence towards “promoting institutional changes in aquaculture management”, aiming at social acceptance, reputational capital and social license.
The backbone of the Network is the Aquaculture Helix, a virtual community and marketplace around ASTRAL to support its long-term establishment. Through the Helix, the Atlantic Aquaculture Network will provide a community for understanding and applying a sustainable harnessing of Atlantic Ocean resources. It will bring together and systematically connect industrial partners, SMEs, scientists, policy makers, social representatives and other stakeholders, promoting data exchange, knowledge sharing, business opportunities and capacity building. Moreover, it will substantiate an initial marketplace for IMTA. Other activities in and around ASTRAL complement the activities of the Atlantic Aquaculture Network.
Engage with the Atlantic Aquaculture Network by subscribing to the ASTRAL’s newsletter and following ASTRAL’s social media: Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube.
NEWS & EVENTS
2021
- 04/16 – “The multi-trophic revolution: a deep dive with IMTA guru Thierry Chopin”. News article by Jonah van Beijnen and Gregg Yan (The Fish Site).
- 04/22 – “Earth Day: All-UCT trio of Atlantic ambassadors”. News article by Helen Swingler (Univ Cape Town, South Africa).
- 05/28 – Networking Friday with ASTRAL project. More info here. Recording available here.
- 06/03 – “Developing sustainable aquaculture in the Atlantic”. All-Atlantic2021 side event, co-organised by ASTRAL, AquaVitae and EATip. More info here.
- 07/09 – “ASTRAL Aims for Effective Engagement”. Article by Laura Ferguson, PDRA Marine Social Science at the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS).
- 07/09 – “Tracking climate change along the Atlantic coast”. Article by Augustin Kessler, Postdoctoral research fellow, NORCE Norwegian Research Centre.
- 07/16 – “The importance of zero waste & circularity within aquaculture: the case of IMTA”. Article by Inma Sanchez, Senior researcher at LEITAT’s Circular Economy Department.
- 07/24 – “Sensor-based Precision Aquaculture”. Article by Bruna Guterres, Research Assistant and Marcelo Pias, Associate Professor, Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG) (ASTRAL Technology Work Package).
- 07/30 – “IMTA’s potential to reach a sustainable Blue Economy“. Article by Rozenn Le Vaillant from Technopôle Quimper Cornouaille & Juliana Carvajal, European project manager at Pôle Mer Bretagne Atlantique.
- 10/11 – “ASTRAL Partner FURG Donated 75kg of Fish Harvested within Experiment to local NGO – Mesa Brasil”. News from ASTRAL’s Brazilian patterns.
- 10/22 – Aquaculture Europe 2021. Read more about ASTRAL’s participation here at the conference.
The ASTRAL project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 863034
