Aquaculture is a complex production, influenced by many interrelated parameters related to environment, production management practices, feeding strategies, feed composition, and the daily operation of the farms. Companies operate in a low profit margin and rely on high sales volumes to create profits, which in turn leaves little room for inefficient operations. Minor deviations from optimal values incur large deviations in profits or changing from positive to negative results.

Furthermore, aquaculture, as with many other sectors, uses natural resources and interacts with the environment and, as such, is increasingly confronted with issues of environmental protection. Increasing efficiency in resource use while minimizing adverse environmental interactions is a major goal for the next decades.

Combining high production volumes with a sustainable environmental impact is a major challenge for industry, one which requires commitment and collaboration of all stakeholders.

Researchers, scientists, investors, and decision-makers need to combine socioeconomic, biological, environmental, and other factors in order to drive scientific evidence and carve policies on the sustainability and development of the sector.

BlueBRIDGE is developing a set of  solutions to:

1. Improve companies’ efficiency, increase profitability, and do business in a sustainable, environmentally-friendly way, enabling them to convert their operation data into knowledge (for example, Key Performance Indicators) and actionable results (See the Performance evaluation, benchmarking, and decision-making in aquaculture VRE)
2. Allow governments and environmental agencies to evaluate the current situation, define policies, and enable investors to efficiently make decisions using, for instance, multifactor evaluation approaches (See the Strategic Investment and Environmental Planning Analysis and Alerting VRE).