174

and disease treatments) can be up-scaled and marketed in similar ways to non-marine biotechnology products. The value chain begins with Research and discovery activities. These are mainly utilising marine organisms that are already known to science and there is far less emphasis on bioprospecting. Within the value chain there are only a few companies that have dedicated R&D departments, mainly feed companies. Given the scale of the sector, aquaculture companies tend to collaborate on an ad hoc basis with research institutions and universities. As a result, public private initiatives and research investments (e.g. FP6 & FP7) can provide important sources of support to the R&D stage of the value chain. The successful growth of Aquagen is based on a history of effective public private sector partnership that included government financial support, research institutions and major industry players185. The European Aquaculture Technology and Innovation Platform was created in 2007 and this also helps to identify and support research, including biotechnology, in key areas of importance within the aquaculture value chain. The nature of the aquaculture value chain itself has an impact on the marine biotechnology value chain and the emphasis of activities within in. With increasing consolidation there has also been a trend toward concentrating distribution though large-scale retail chains, especially in UK, France and Germany186. The demands of these retail chains in terms both of volume and predictability of supply is considered to have acted as a constraint on the development of new species187. The emphasis within the aquaculture value chain is therefore towards diversification and development of new processed product forms using the available species. As a result there is reduced demand for R&D activities in the marine biotechnology value chain aimed at identifying new culture species. There has been support to European R&D efforts through the current FP7 programme. Specific projects that have sought to deepen knowledge at the nexus of biotechnology and marine aquaculture. Specialised courses have also emerged in areas where there aquaculture is an important industry. One example is the Institute of Aquaculture which offers a postgraduate degree in Aquaculture Biotechnology. Further along the value chain there has, to date, been limited private equity investment in aquaculture. Cyclicality and biological risk limit the potential for investment and most investment is from within the fisheries sector overall. Potential products areas currently in research and development stage The main potential for marine biotechnology in relation to the aquaculture sector can be found in the following areas:     Developing culture species; Developing methods to diagnose and treat disease; Transgenic approaches; Surrogate broodstock technologies. Within the aquaculture sector, the application of marine biotechnology, including genomic knowledge and technologies to the practice of aquaculture have been termed ‘molecular aquaculture’, distinguishing them from the more traditional fish husbandry and selective breeding types of approaches. In this section we will be focusing on these novel approaches and their application. 185 e.g. Bostock et al. (2010) 186 FAO Fisheries Circular No. 972/4, Part 1 187 e.g. Bostock et al. (2010). Study in support of Impact Assessment work on Blue Biotechnology 147

175 Publizr Home