The Atlantic Canada Aquaculture Studio has launched in St. John’s to accelerate aquaculture, aquatech and marine biotechnology companies towards commercial growth and investment readiness.
Run by Hatch Blue in partnership with Oceans Advance, the nine-month programme brings together ten early-stage businesses from across Atlantic Canada in order to provide them with both federal and provincial support.
“Atlantic Canada has every ingredient needed to lead the next wave of global aquaculture innovation – world-class science, deep ocean expertise and a growing community of ambitious technology companies,” said Shelly Petten, CEO of Oceans Advance.
“The launch of the Atlantic Canada Aquaculture Studio marks a pivotal moment for our region.”
The road to commercialisation
The initiative combines an initial two-week intensive with year-round mentoring, industry engagement and investor preparation to help founders commercialise technologies and scale their businesses.
Among the inaugural cohort, Nova Scotia-based Clean Valley is developing an algae biofilter that removes nutrients from wastewater generated by land-based aquaculture operations while producing algae that can be reused as oyster feed, supporting more circular production systems.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s Atlantic BioCorp is advancing a pigmented protein feed additive made from Northern shrimp biomass, offering salmon producers a natural alternative to synthetic astaxanthin.
The wider cohort also includes Smallfood, EVAH Atlantic, Acuicy, Mekapisk EnviroBlu Solutions, FinLeaf Technologies, NL Marine Organics, HoldfastNL and BioLabMate.
It’s a cohort which highlights the breadth of aquatech and marine biotechnology innovation across alternative feed ingredients, sea lice treatment, emissions management, industrial cleaning, waste valorisation, kelp-derived biostimulants and bio-based materials.
The Atlantic Canada Aquaculture Studio has launched in St. John’s to accelerate aquaculture, aquatech and marine biotechnology companies towards commercial growth and investment readiness.
