Good Practices from the Baltic Blue Bioeconomy

The registered Baltic Blend® fish feed uses safe and pure raw materials to produce fish feed containing plant oil, plant protein, fish oil, fish meal, vitamins and minerals mainly from Finland and the Baltic Sea region. 

Pieni Kalatila (Little Fish Farm) is a land-based fishfarm in  Finland, using recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) to produce whitefish and rainbow trout. The fish is grown in a sustainable way, with lower environmental impact, focusing also on using biomass waste as biofuel & CO2 for plant cultivation. 

Kalaparkki uses fish skin to develop new products including wallets, bags and purses. The fish skin is tanned and curried as a durable and wear-resistant leather. The company uses vegetable tanning, which is an ecological way to utilize the skin of the commonly caught edible fish.

Järki Särki is delicious, preserved fish, wild caught from the lakes of Finland and seasoned with simple, local, organic ingredients. The company helps reduce nutrients from the water by developing new food products from wild fish catches.  

Pielisen Kala produces clean, natural Finnish fish, preserved without any additives. Their fish mostly come from inland waters and they do their own fishing with equipment in Lake Pielinen.

Särkifood uses only domestic fish in ther products, which are mainly fished in the Gulf of Bothnia and the Archipelago Sea. SÄRVIN Original is an easy-to-use and mild-tasting flavored fishmeal.

With the calculator, consumers can determine the impacts of their consumption habits on nutrient pollution in the Baltic Sea. Phosphorus and nitrogen, the nutrients responsible for most of the eutrophication in the Baltic Sea, are considered in the calculator.

The Estonian Fisheries Information Centre promotes cooperation between scientists, aquaculture farmers and fishermen. The Centre will undertake studies and set up pilot sites. 

Est-Agar AS is the only producer of the unique texturant – furcellaran from the red seaweed Furcellaria lumbricalis in the world. The company focuses on the production and sale of the gelling agent furcellaran and the gathering, processing and sale of red seaweed Furcellaria lumbricalis.

The annual "Bundesgengenstammtisch" is the German communication platform for all stakeholders involved in algae biotechnology from the science and industry. 

The Roundtable coordinates Germany's activities to combat marine litter. It discusses proposals and develops concrete strategies for their implementation. The participants of the Roundtable on Marine Litter include some 130 experts from the fishing industry, shipping, the plastics industry, wastewater management, environmental associations, public authorities and government.

The FishGlassHouse enables researchers to conduct experiments on both coupled and decoupled aquaponics systems. It consists of an aquacultural unit (300m²) with three different water-circuits (42m³ total water volume) and a hydroponic unit (600m²) built in a Venlo-style greenhouse. Three different fish stocking densities (extensive, semi-intensive and intensive) produce process water of different nutrient loads, which can be transferred to the hydroponic unit.

Latvian biotech startup SpirulinaNord offers superfood - fresh tropical algae Spirulina grown in the cool climate of Latvia. It can be added to almost every kind of dish and drink - it has almost no taste, a refreshingly green colour and contains a lot of anti-oxidants and vitamings.  

Lithuanians are seeking to acquire the knowledge and technologies that would provide stronger  competitive advantages in the aquaculture industry and that would effectively employ the country’s existing geothermal resources. For that purpose, an experimental base for industrial shrimp farming has been designed and started operating in Klaipėda in 2018. 

The Centre provides new opportunities for closer cooperation between science and business through various studies and projects. It serves as a platform for the adoption of the knowledge and technologies enabling higher competitiveness of the aquaculture industry. 

Swedish Algae Factory operates in harmony with nature, in real time. We cultivate our own algae, based on a circular economic mindset where carbon dioxide, nitrogen and phosphorus emissions are converted into valuable products.

Kerteminde Organic Mussel Farm commercialises open-water raised mussels to produces high-quality mussels in an efficient and environmentally-friendly way.

Odense Municipality has set up a small number of mussel cultivation lines in the Odense harbor. If the mussels can grow and thrive on the lines, a larger mussel plant can improve water quality and remove nitrogen, phosphorus, heavy metals and various bacteria.

The system implemented in the farm is based on the recycling of nutrient rich waters and waste from fish breeding for the production of agricultural crops. Each kilogramme of fish waste products provides the necessary nutrients to harvest 10 kilogrammes of crops.

The Association unites more than one hundred members and focuses on professional fish production, primarily of salmonid fish, as well as other species with a potential future in the marketplace. It gathers almost all representatives of the trout sector in Poland, and has become a strong organization dealing with the promotion of the development of the industry. 

Shrimp portal is a web page focused on shrimp cultivation. It is a first and only internet source on Litopaneus vanamei production in the Polish language. The page includes information on the species, its cultivation in RAS systems, specifics on the technology itself, parameters to be set for the production, etc. 

Havhøst – Danish for “Ocean Harvest” – is the largest member organisation gathered around regenerative ocean cultivation in Denmark. Through events and activities, the organisation encourages the use of the blue areas in and around cities for people of all ages to try their hand at local, sustainable food production. 

Blue Lobster is changing the way fish is bought and sold, by enabling fishermen to cut out the middlemen and sell directly to restaurants and end-consumers via a digital marketplace. The app connects chefs with low impact fishermen, delivering the best quality seafood straight from the harbor and paying the fishermen fairly.

In Berlin you can find one of the world's most modern urban aquaponics facilities, the ECF FARM Berlin. On the site of the beautiful MALT FACTORY, fish farming is combined with vegetable cultivation to produce regional "capital city perch" and fresh "capital city basil".

Coop Denmark has announced that it has launched a new online shop via Coop Crowdfunding, where small Danish food producers will be able to sell their goods directly to consumers. Launched in 2017, Coop Crowdfunding has so far secured financing for more than 400 projects within the Danish food and grocery industry. 

Dr. Staufenberger is proudly developing a local mussel and algae farm in Kiel, Germany, selling his products not only for food but also to a high-end cosmetics brand. By taking up nutrients from the sea, his business is fighting eutrophication – a major problem in the region due to the run-off of nutrients and minerals from land activities. To see his algae turned into cosmetics, Tim had to transcend sectors and adapt to new requirements and product specifications.

The Plan4Blue project has developed four scenarios to depict how planning choices may affect people and the marine nature in the Gulf of Finland and the Archipelago Sea. A short video animation was produced to present four alternative future scenarios: “Unlimited growth”, “Virtual reality”, “Sustainability above all!” and “Sustainability dilemma”, as well as infographics of scenarios of different sectors.

The operational Danish Middelgrunden wind farm organises demonstration days which include boat tours where participants can climb all the way up to the nacelle. 50% of the farm is owned by a local cooperative with more than 8.000 members and 50% by a utillity company. 

Skylab FoodLab is an interdisciplinary space for food system innovation which can host product development activities, events, workshops and lectures. Students and young entrepreneurs working in food systems have free access and there is equipment available for experimenting with and testing food ingredients, as well as space to work and prototype solutions across the entire food system. The Lab also organises FoodTalks, where startups, scientists and friends talk food innovation, entrepreneurship and trends.