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Description
Contributing to the diversification of European aquaculture, currently saturated by species such as salmon, sea bream and sea bass, the HALIBOT project aims to create nutritional bases to leverage the production of three species of flatfish highly valued by the consumer: Atlantic halibut, nailed and Senegalese sole. Thus, the project aims to develop and launch innovative microdiet in the market for the first ages of these species, improving their production potential in a critical phase of cultivation, which is weaning. Thus, the HALIBOT project will contribute to increasing the production of quality juveniles of the three target species, playing an important role for the sustainability of the European aquaculture industry.The HALIBOT project will be divided into six activities that will focus on the development, pilot-scale testing and industrial-scale validation of new innovative foods for the early ages of Atlantic halibut, turbot and Senegalese sole. Thus, it is intended that the developed products move on the innovation platform from TRL 6 to TRL 9, being launched on the market after the end of the project. The project will also contemplate activities of dissemination, protection of intellectual property and commercialization of the developed products, in order to increase its market penetration when launching in the European market.The consortium gathers both R&D experience and commercial expertise - SPAROS offers the alliance of a strong scientific background in the area of fish nutrition, with a flexible pilot-scale feed technology platform, whilst ACUINOVA offers expertise in turbot and Senegalese sole aquaculture. As a result, SPAROS will have a portfolio of tailor made microdiets to commercialize, while ACUINOVA will benefit from increased predictability in production and improved biological performance of sole and turbot larvae and juveniles.
Summary of project results
HALIBOT project aimed at developing feeding regimes based on premium microfeeds with high nutritional specificity, to increase survival and robustness of Atlantic halibut, turbot and Senegalese sole larvae and juveniles.
HALIBOT activities were leaded by the Portuguese companies SPAROS and FLATLANTIC, and involved subcontracting a Norwegian commercial producer of Atlantic Halibut - STERLING WHITE HALIBUT AS. The initial activities led by SPAROS involved gathering information on the nutritional requirements of each flatfish species, selecting the most suitable feed ingredients and producing the microfeed prototypes for the three species. The microfeed prototypes were initially tested in small-scale trials (WP2) and then validated in commercialscale trials at the partner & subcontractor facilities: Senegalese sole and Turbot trials at SPAROS and FLATLANTIC, and Atlantic halibut trials at STERLING WH.
The continuous knowledge exchange on fish nutrition and husbandry of the different flatfish species was fruitful for FLATLANTIC, STERLING WH and also for SPAROS especially to understand in more depth the flatfish market needs and to widen the network contact in the Mediterranean and Norwegian markets. Moreover, the success of the HALIBOT project will motivate future cooperations between the involved companies, which can benefit from complementary expertise, research & development focus and drive for innovation in aquaculture. The resulting products allow significant improvements on the production of Senegalese sole, turbot and Atlantic halibut. Both Flatlantic and Sterling WH have now access to novel nutritional solutions to help improving quality of flatfish juveniles, ultimately increasing profitability. In turn, SPAROS expanded the portfolio of tailor-made microfeeds and can penetrate in new markets.