Culture of a wide range of low trophic species to boost sustainable production of Blue Food and reduce environmental footprint

BLUEBOOST aims to provide knowledge-based solutions that will enable the aquaculture industry to overcome bottlenecks currently inhibiting sector growth, and simultaneously reduce its environmental footprint.

Through co-cultivation with low-trophic species, BLUEBOOST facilitates transforming in particular European aquaculture, while restoring ecosystems and strengthening their climate resilience.Six distinct current aquaculture systems, located throughout Europe and in Brazil will be developed by this experienced research team collaborating with companies.

Side streams from each traditional system will provide nutrients for low-trophic species added, which gives increased and diversified harvests.

By comparing current and future multi-trophic systems, environmental and economic benefits, as well as potential trade-offs of integrating low-trophic species, will be demonstrated.RISE will lead the work package related to sustainability evaluation comparing monoculture and multi-trophic production systems, which is a key novelty of the project.

Life cycle assessment (LCA) allowing the quantification of multiple environmental impacts will be used. Data collection will utilize a combination of traditional inventory work and remote sensing of nutrient flows.

BLUEBOOST is expected to deliver increasing and more diverse production volumes and improve business economic returns combined with reduced environmental footprint for overall more sustainable aquaculture production.