Ireland using tricks of foreign direct investment success to build aquaculture tech hub

Ireland is seeking to establish itself as a hub for aquaculture technology, according to Wayne Murphy, the co-founder of Hatch, a program assisting start-ups in the sector globally.

Ireland is drawing on its status as a European hub for many of the world’s largest technology and life science companies to boost its aquaculture sector, Murphy said.

“Ireland’s start-up system is very developed,” Murphy told SeafoodSource. “[Ireland’s strength] will not be in the volume of aquaculture produced but in technology we can develop and export.”

Working alongside state agencies, Hatch is hoping to build on the momentum growing in Ireland’s aquaculture sector, Murphy said. One of the start-ups it is assisting is Aquamonitrix, a nitrate and nitrite analyzer allowing operators of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) to monitor fresh or saline water quality autonomously and in real-time, thus improving the growth performance of their fish stocks. 

Aquamonitrix Sales Manager John McGrath credited assistance from Hatch and a trio of Irish government agencies with bringing Aquamonitrix to market, crediting research advice it received from the Marine Institute and Bord Iascaigh Mhara, a government agency promoting development of Irish fisheries. McGrath said the backing allowed the company to test and verify the efficiency of its technology through partnerships with research centers, including the James Hutton Institute in Britain. 

“From a chemical point of view, it’s very difficult to monitor nitrite, and salinity adds an extra challenge, but our technology can handle this,” he said.

Consultants brought in by another state agency, Enterprise Ireland, advised the company on the design and building process to bring the technology from a prototype to a saleable device.

“This gave us skillsets and confidence,” McGrath told SeafoodSource. “Enterprise Ireland also helped us to register our intellectual property.”

In much the way that Ireland’s Industrial Development Authority was effective in convincing the world’s largest technology companies – including Apple, Facebook, and Google – to make the country their E.U. base, Enterprise Ireland is a government agency charged with helping Ireland’s companies go global.

Ireland’s education system, geared to skill talent for multinational tech firms, may also help foster a cluster of aquaculture start-ups. McGrath pointed to a pool of young people doing science degrees and Ph.D.s “who are very enthusiastic to join SME-sized enterprises and bring research to the product level.”

Another of the companies assisted by Hatch is NanobOx, which has developed technology to make the aeration process in aquaculture orders of magnitude more energy efficient, according to company founder John Favier. His technology “drastically reduces” the cost of oxygenation of water which, he said, is the largest cost for land-based aquaculture systems after feed.

Like the Aquamonitrix developers, Favier credits help he’s gotten from BIM and Enterprise Ireland. Ireland is “very active in developing its aquaculture technology sector,” he told SeafoodSource. Hatch meanwhile, is “helping us engage with potential industry partners and prospective customers.”

Favier said prototypes of his technology have been developed for field trials in shrimp farms.

“It also uniquely generates oxygen enriched nanobubbles using ambient air that maintains dissolved oxygen levels for longer than conventional air nanobubbles,” said Favier, adding that the nanobubble generator can be solar-powered, making it deployable off-grid.

Ireland’s role as an oyster producer – major French brands like Gillardeau farm and buy oysters in Ireland – gave rise to the Oyster Pitch, an innovative method of tracking oyster health and reducing mortality by monitoring sound. Oyster Pitch developer Lee Hunter, an oyster farmer in County Donegal, says he “couldn’t commend enough” the help he’s gotten from Irish state agencies.

“We are located in the Gaeltacht [Irish-speaking area] and got support for the feasibility study from Údarás na Gaeltachta, alongside innovation vouchers” he said. 

Rising oyster mortality may become an issue due to a drop in the country’s formerly pristine water-quality standards, as highlighted in a recent report from the country’s Environmental Protection Agency.

Declining water quality is a global concern – and an opportunity for Ireland’s aquaculture technology start-ups, particularly Aquamonitrix. Given the growth of the global aquaculture sector it’s not surprising there’s strong demand for Aquamonitrix’s technology, McGrath said, with the company recently picking up clients in Australia, Chile, and Norway.

Hunter, who is working towards having a marketable product ready for next year’s National Shellfish and Marine Culture Expo in Vannes, France, a key event for Europe’s shellfish industry, is also looking at applying for support from Ireland’s Blue Economy Fund, provided by the Irish government and the E.U. to help seafood firms cope with Brexit-related challenges.

“I’m very pleased when it comes to the support from government bodies,” Hunter told SeafoodSource. “I am involved with another oyster group in Australia and they lack that kind of support that we get.”

Photo courtesy of Aquamonitrix