GreenWave is an award winning US-based organisation that has developed an Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) model through sustainably farming a variety of ocean produce.[1]

Through CIVA, I have partnered with GreenWave to launch this innovative model across the UK.

The model is currently being operated by farmers and local communities successfully in 25 locations on both coasts in the US, and has caught the attention of chefs, food processors and retailers, the media and, most importantly, prospective farmers and local communities. Examples of media interest in GreenWave can be found here. Details of GreenWave’s partners can be found here. Founder Bren Smith’s TED talk can be viewed here. The 2013 New Yorker article that triggered much of the subsequent interest in GreenWave can be found here. Of the 1,200 expressions of interest to replicate they have received from around the world 36 are located in the UK.

Whilst the model is successfully operating and expanding in the US, to extend this success to the UK we now need to undertake a programme of work to build the market and develop farms and hatcheries, so that the model may be successfully adapted to the UK context.

This will pave the way for the large-scale adoption of this model across the UK and ultimately the world, through using UK activities to develop a template for international replication of the model.

[1] Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) provides the byproducts, including waste, from one aquatic species as inputs (fertilizers, food) for another. Farmers combine fed aquaculture (e.g., fish, shrimp) with inorganic extractive (e.g., seaweed) and organic extractive (e.g., shellfish) aquaculture to create balanced systems for environment remediation (biomitigation), economic stability (improved output, lower cost, product diversification and risk reduction) and social acceptability (better management practices): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_multi-trophic_aquaculture