Course work
Last month the golfing mecca, St Andrews, hosted another major international event: the Responsible Seafood Summit. Robert Outram was there.
Last year it was St John’s, in New Brunswick, Canada. Next year it will be Cartagena, Colombia. But in 2024, the venue for the Global Seafood Alliance’s Responsible Seafood Summit was St Andrews on the east coast of Scotland – better known, it must be said, for its status as the home of golf than as a seafood hub.
The summit was co-hosted by the Global Seafood Alliance, a not-for-profit industry body dedicated to promoting sustainable seafood production, and national industry body Seafood Scotland.
More than 340 people attended the event at the Fairmont Hotel, overlooking the North Sea and one of St Andrews’ many golf courses. Although there was some time set aside for recreation – including the odd game of golf, and even crazy golf in the hotel – there was a packed programme covering key issues in aquaculture and catch fishing.
The GSA’s annual updates on finfish and shrimp aquaculture, collated by market experts at Rabobank and Kontali, gave a picture of the industry in 2024 and predictions for the next few years (see Outlook, here, for details).
“Increasing seafood’s share” was the theme of this year’s summit. The level of interest from major retailers – the highest attendance in the event’s 23-year history – demonstrates the increasing importance of issues such as food security and seafood’s appeal as a lean, healthy protein as the world’s population continues to increase.
Chris van der Kuyl
AI will change everything
On the opening day of the summit, Chris van der Kuyl, IT entrepreneur and Chairman of aquaculture technology business Ace Aquatec, gave a keynote address with a strong message: artificial intelligence can help aquaculture address its biggest challenges.
Van der Kuyl, who among other claims to fame was part of the team who created the global gaming phenomenon Minecraft, said: “We are living in a time with the fastest pace of change in human history, but the pace of change will never be this slow again. The future promises faster innovation, reshaping industries and societies at unprecedented speeds. This can be exciting and utterly terrifying.”
The increasing capabilities of information technology, and artificial intelligence in particular, have implications for aquaculture and for the seafood sector as a whole, he argued. Applications range from monitoring fish health and feeding optimisation to biomass measurement and environmental monitoring, he said.
And he stressed: “Data-driven decision-making is absolutely key.”
Fish Farmer’s interview with Chris van der Kuyl is here
(from left) Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes, GSA’s Devan Meserve and Seafood Scotland Chief Executive Donna Fordyce
Also at the opening day of the conference, Mairi Gougeon, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands in the Scottish Government, welcomed delegates in a video message, and Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes gave the final address of the morning.
Kate Forbes said: “Scotland’s marine industries play a vital role in securing and growing prosperity across the country – not least within our coastal communities.
“Our thriving and sustainable Scottish seafood industries produce world-class seafood products with annual exports worth over £1 billion. The Scottish Government’s clear message is that this is a country that is open for business. We will continue to work with industry, businesses and key partners to continue delivering the Scotland Food & Drink Export Plan and help ensure our seafood industries continue to flourish and grow.”
Tavish Scott and Gilpin Bradley’s ‘fireside chat’
Fish waste and fireside chats
Salmon Scotland Chief Executive Tavish Scott and Gilpin Bradley, former Managing Director of Wester Ross Salmon and now an angel investor, discussed industry issues in the form of a “fireside chat”.
Bradley explained how Wester Ross got started back in 1964, and shared some of the insights he has learned from being part of that journey. He stressed the importance of choosing the right strain of fish, and finding the right market for your product, but he also stressed: “It’s ‘people first’. Choose the right team and everything else will follow.”
Customers can also help your business grow, he said: “An A-list customer is one who will promote your product and name check you on their menu!”
Donna Fordyce, CEO of Seafood Scotland, told the conference: “The seafood industry is determined to continue to modernise and innovate, with a particular focus on generating new income streams by using more parts of the fish and reducing waste.
“We plan to create a ‘Scotland Ocean Cluster’ to ensure that collaboration is happening at the highest level, and that Scotland is in the strongest position to attract private and public sector investment.
Donna Fordyce
“A key ambition for the industry is to work alongside the major retailers to get more responsibly sourced seafood onto supermarket shelves and featured on restaurant menus. There’s so much potential there.”
A key focus for Seafood Scotland is reducing waste in the seafood industry, by finding value for “sidestreams” in fish processing. This was also the topic for a presentation by Alexandra Leeper, Chief Executive of the Iceland Ocean Cluster, who described how Iceland’s “100% fish” had, as a response to tighter cod quotas, been able to find significantly more value from each fish caught.
The summit also featured a panel discussion on the “spatial squeeze” increasingly found in coastal waters where users such as fisheries, aquaculture and offshore energy businesses are competing for space. The panel, including Tavish Scott, Elspeth Macdonald of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation and Fingal McKiernan of SSE Renewables, agreed that governments have a key role to play, and that policy must be based on better scientific evidence than is available at present.
Fish Farmer’s interview with Donna Fordyce is here
Welfare – for fish and people
Wednesday morning saw a discussion on animal (and human) welfare in the seafood industry. An important message was that welfare is or should be a win-win game. For example, the working conditions of employees in processing centres are much improved – and factors such as staff turnover and commitment are better – where humane slaughter methods are in place.
Similarly, looking after the welfare of stock in aquaculture must be a priority.
Linda Wood, Aquaculture and Fisheries Manager with retailer Marks & Spencer, said: “It’s just better business. With better welfare, more animals will survive and you will get better quality.”
Dr Sara Barrento, of training and consultancy group FAI, said: “Once you see welfare, you can’t unsee it.”
A panel of retailers, representing Tesco in the UK and Walmart, Southeastern Grocers and Red Lobster in the US, shared insights on consumer behaviour and how to sell seafood at a time when it is a comparatively expensive source of protein. They agreed that telling the “seafood story” is crucial. So is collaboration, stressed Walmart’s Andrew Lindstrom: “You go fast alone, but you go further together.”
Other topics discussed at the summit included the journey to net zero, how to develop leadership in seafood and how aquafeed can become more sustainable.
The final day of the summit saw the opportunity to go on field trips to see the seafood sector in action, including the Loch Fyne Oyster farm, the Rastech trial shrimp farm in St Andrews itself, BioMar’s Scottish feed mill, JK Thomson’s processing and smoking plant in Musselburgh and the DFDS logistics hub at Larkhall, near Glasgow.
See our video interviews with Donna Fordyce and Chris van der Kuyl at www.youtube.com/@fishfarmermag
The next Responsible Seafood Summit takes place in Cartagena, Colombia in the week commencing 29 September 2025. More details will be available in due course at events.globalseafood.org.
