Walt Rakitsky, senior vice president of emerging business, Corbion (formerly TerraVia), receives last year’s award from GAA president George Chamberlain, left. Photo: GAA

GAA Innovation Award attracts record entries

The Global Aquaculture Alliance has received a record number of 34 applications for its sixth annual Global Aquaculture Innovation Award, almost double last year’s total.

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The judging process is currently under way for the award, with the three finalists receiving a free trip to the GAA’s GOAL 2018 conference in Guayaquil, Ecuador, from September 25 to 27. They will present at the conference, with the winner being selected by the audience.

Last year’s award went to Corbion’s (formerly TerraVia) AlgaPrime DHA aquaculture feed ingredient that has been manufactured at a facility in Brazil since 2014, running off the steam generated by a sugarcane mill, as part of a joint venture with Bunge Oils.

The microalgae is fermented, converting sugars into oils and other ingredients. Already being used by a farmed salmon producer in Chile, AlgaPrime complements traditional aquaculture feed ingredients to enrich the fish’s omega-3 fatty acid levels.

In 2016 the award went to Bergen University professor Karin Pittman for Quantidoc’s mucosal mapping technology, the commercialisation of her fish biology research, which employs stereology to measure and better understand mucous on gill, gut and skin tissues - the first line of defence for fish.

The three finalists will be announced towards the end of this month.