On the quest for a sustainable fish feed for the aquaculture industry / Akvaplan-niva

17 April 2026 news

By Lionel Camus, Kanchana Bandara and Pierre Priou

Global demand for food is increasing. To meet this need, aquaculture has also expanded and is forecast to produce 60% of all fish for human consumption by 2030. This means the aquaculture industry must find sustainable sources of fish feed. One possibility is the marine copepod Calanus finmarchicus.

Today much of the feed used in fish farming is sourced from captured wild fish, making the sustainability of aquaculture questionable. Therefore, the aquaculture industry is on the lookout for sustainable feed sources. A marine copepod, Calanus finmarchicus, a crustacean about 1-2 mm long and abundant in the Norwegian Sea, offers an easily accessible lower trophic level resource. The copepod is rich in lipid, making C. finmarchicus a high-energy food source for many planktivorous fish and also an attractive feed ingredient in fish farming. Currently, the Norwegian company Calanus AS is processing and distributing C. finmarchicus harvested in the coastal waters of northeast Norway. The present-day harvest is estimated at about 0.5% of the annual quota set by the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research and accounts only for 0.00004% of the estimated C. finmarchicus stock in the Norwegian Sea.

Overview of research activities in the Clin-BluFeed project, including in-situ shipboard, autonomous vehicles with sensors, space borne sampling/observation, and ex-situ experiments of copepod behaviour. These in-situ and ex-situ data has been fed into a 3D forecasting model of Calanus stock assessment and distribution. The outputs can be delivered in real-time to stakeholders to develop a climate-neutral sustainable fish feed for the aquaculture industry.

With the expansion of the aquaculture industry, the potential for the Calanus fishery to grow is large. This calls for managing the stock of this highly valuable marine resource to ensure a sustainable Calanus fishery. Within this context, the European Union Sustainability Blue Economy Partnership has funded the project CliN-BluFeed. The main project objective is to develop methodologies that advance the Norwegian Sea Calanus fishery as a sustainable climate-neutral blue resource for the aquaculture industry. This will be done through harnessing the potential of cutting-edge, low-carbon-emission autonomous marine monitoring technologies coupled with remote sensing, artificial intelligence (AI), simulation modelling, and experimental investigations as illustrated in the illustration above.

Calanus collected in the field. Photo: Pierre Priou/Akvaplan-niva

Two successfulfield surveys were conducted successfully in 2024 in collaboration with the project 'Migratory Crossroad' financed by the Research Council of Norway. In these surveys autonomous uncrewed vehicles (AUVs) equipped with advanced sensors were deployed from a research vessel. The work continued in 2025 where the team demonstrated that the AUV could be deployed and recovered from the shore without the support of a research vessel. The AUVs used were one Sailbuoy rigged with an echo sounder and two Seaglider rigged with the optical imagery sensor UVP6 and a echo sounder.

While the echo sounder detects and quantify plankton biomass, the UVP6 allows to visualise, identify and quantify plankton species. Parallel with the AUVs collecting data during a month at sea, the team collected satellite pictures. For this they used both the Copernicus satellite operated by the European Space Agency to collect information on the ocean colour and a satellite operated by the NASA with a LIDAR sensor that can penetrate through the upper 20-30 m of the ocean surface. In addition to this laboratory experiments were performed to study the behaviour of the copepod. All collected data was then used to develop and support a copepod population model that can predict the presence and density across time and ocean space.

Satelite image as part of planning for field mission Source: The Air Centre

The knowledge and cutting-edge methodologies and technological solutions provided by the CliN-BluFeed project will secure evidence which will support and improve the understanding and management of our marine ecosystem, with value creation effects for both industry and society.

About the CliN-BluFeed project:

Full title: A low-CO₂ smart autonomous multiplatform system to monitor and forecast Calanus finmarchicus stock—a new sustainable climate-neutral blue fish feed

Partners:

Akvaplan-niva (Norway, project lead)
Institute of Oceanology Polish Academy of Sciences (Poland)
Atlantic International Research Centre (Portugal)
Cyprus Subsea Consulting and Services (Cyprus)
Alfred Wegener Institute (Germany)

This article has also been published in Fram Forum: CliN-BluFeed—a quest for sustainable fish feed - Framforum