EarlyBirds' Innovations Are Poised to Trigger a Sea Change of Opportunities in Aquaculture
7 October 2022

Innovations in aquaculture have the potential to kill two birds with one stone. First, it can ease the global food crisis since other mainstream forms of food production, such as agriculture and livestock rearing, are facing their own distinct challenges. Next, scaling up aquaculture will also lead to taking some of the pressure off traditional food production industries which are known to have tremendous greenhouse gas emissions and contribute significantly to global warming.

EarlyBirds is an Australian open innovation ecosystem that brings together large players in innovation and technology face to face with innovators who are charting new territory in their areas of business dominance.

The Australian B2B platform solutions provider has now trained its sights on breathing new life into the field of aquaculture. It is pitching its services to industry veterans who can implement its actionable innovations and spark the “blue revolution” which has the potential to forever change the way and volume in which people all over the world consume seafood. Readers can find out more about the company by visiting its website at earlybirds.io.

Innovations in aquaculture have the potential to kill two birds with one stone. First, it can ease the global food crisis since other mainstream forms of food production, such as agriculture and livestock rearing, are facing their own distinct challenges. Next, scaling up aquaculture will also lead to taking some of the pressure off traditional food production industries which are known to have tremendous greenhouse gas emissions and contribute significantly to global warming.

Moreover, increasing fishing yield in aquaculture systems while scaling down fishing in open waters to let the natural populations replenish is one of the key methods of ensuring the long-term sustainability of those fish species in their natural environments. This is a top-priority issue because global freshwater and seawater fish reserves are limited. Excessive unrestrained fishing has led to the demise of the population of marine life in many fishing hotspots around the world and it has even driven some species of prized catch to extinction.

Aquaculture is the perfect antidote to meet the demand for seafood in light of government restrictions and declining fish populations in the wild due to either overfishing or climate change. In 2018, the industry reached an estimated $232 billion in revenue and generated 80 million metric tons of food, even surpassing the biomass of the total beef produced. Most of the innovation in the industry comes from perfecting facilities raising salmon, which has a high demand due to its high nutritional value.

Kris Poria, cofounder of EarlyBirds comments on the current challenges holding back the output and profitability of aquaculture by saying, “The cost of fish feed is the biggest roadblock. Commercial fish feed is made from ground fish and fish oil, which in turn depends on the output of wild fishery of smaller forage fish or other aquaculture operations. Some of the ways to address this are using vegetable proteins and oils or even farmed insects or microalgae as fish feed. Genetic selection and controlled breeding can be leveraged to raise fish that have higher rates of survival and a better meat-to-body mass ratio. On the mechanical side of things, innovations in robotics can be used to create aquaculture facilities that can operate with minimal oversight reducing labor costs. Advanced sensors that can remain completely submerged almost indefinitely can supercharge the data that researchers need to tweak their processes. Supply chains can also be optimized using vehicles and refrigeration solutions connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) to reduce transport times and costs and ensure that only fresh fish reaches the dinner table. Some scientists have even suggested the use of drones to monitor equipment in both onshore and offshore fish farms. The possibilities are endless and you can rest assured that EarlyBirds has the solution you need to solve your immediate technical or business problem in the aquaculture industry. If you are an aquaculture industry thought leader or have the capabilities to bring these actionable innovations to market, please sign up as an Early Adopter on our website at https://earlybirds.io/en/early_adopter.”

EarlyBirds cofounder Jeff Penrose then comments on the exact role that EarlyBirds can play in kickstarting the technological transformation by saying, “Today, innovations and disruptive technologies are addressing complex challenges in the aquaculture industry’s value chain. This includes the need for decarbonization and adopting sustainable practices. EarlyBirds is the ideal partner to work with to address these diverse and complex challenges. We have the capabilities to create a detailed innovation map of the whole industry. We can even focus on a single category that is relevant to a particular component of the industry including sustainability and net-zero operations. Our Innovation Maps are created by Subject Matter Experts who draw on near real-time data from well over 4 million global innovators monitored in the EarlyBirds platform. EarlyBirds also has other capabilities including the ability to promote innovative projects, complex search, and discovery tools, innovation pipelines for workflow, and collaboration tools. If you have an innovation that can shake up the aquaculture industry and are seeking investment to bring it to market, we can help you. Head over to our website to sign up as an Innovator at https://earlybirds.io/en/innovator.”