Sea Pact has announced the recipients of its fourth round of grants which will be distributed this month to three organisations advancing seafood sustainability.
The University of North Texas (UNT) and the Downeast Institute in Maine received renewed funding from previous grants. The newest grant recipient is a research project at the Vancouver Aquarium.
Guy Dean, charmian of the Sea Pact advisory council, said: “It’s been three years since Sea Pact’s formation with a focus on making a positive change within the industry and we are overwhelmed with our progress and the opportunity for the future."
“We continue to have a growing interest in creating new partnerships, memberships and funding opportunities and plan on hiring an executive director very soon to take advantage of these possibilities and help us in our evolution,” he added.
The UNT’s funding is for a research project utilising probiotics as an alternative to antibiotics, this is to improve growth and survival in marine fish fin aquaculture, while the Downeast Institute in Marine’s continued grant is for work with clammers in the town of Freeport.
The work conducts large-scale, manipulative experiments to test hypotheses involving predator exclusion and habitat modification. This is in support of enhancing the number of both wild and cultured “spat” (juvenile clams).
Vancouver Aquarium is seeking to improve sea lice mitigation with the net-pen farmed salmon industry. Its project is evaluating the use of Kelp Perch and Pile Perch within net pens to control sea lice populations.
Mr Dean concluded: “We congratulate the three lucky grant recipients that were chosen from the more than 60 outstanding submissions this cycle.”
