Zooca® produces superior aquaculture feed ingredients from renewable marine resource

Aquaculture provides sustainable and nutritious food for the growing global population and accounts for an increasing amount of dietary protein. However, fish and shrimp farms often experience significant biomass loss and health issues.

These problems can partly be attributed to the use of suboptimal feeds. Due to the lack of availability of fish meal in recent years, plant protein has become the predominant protein source in aquaculture feed. Calanus finmarchicus has been identified as a sustainable resource that increase the supply of marine nutrients.

Calanus finmarchicus is a 3–4 mm long copepod found in abundance in the North Atlantic. The annual biomass production of Calanus sp. is approximately 290 million metric tons, which is many times higher than the total biomass of all fish species in the same area and implies that it can be harvested with minimal impact. C. finmarchicus closely resembles the natural prey of shrimp and saltwater fish in their natural habitat, thus offering optimal nutritional composition.

Zooca® – The Calanus® Company has developed and patented an environment-friendly technology for harvesting Calanus finmarchicus. By freezing the copepods immediately on board, it can deliver premium quality products throughout the year. The company operates the world’s first and only dedicated facility for processing this tiny marine crustacean, in Sortland, Norway, and produces a variety of ingredients: Zooca® Hydrolysate, Zooca® Powder, Zooca® AstaLipids and Zooca® SeaFrozen.

Zooca® Hydrolysate, Zooca® Powder and Zooca® AstaLipids are suitable ingredients in formulated feed. Zooca® SeaFrozen contains whole, unprocessed copepods that can be fed directly to farmed shrimp and fish. All ingredients are sustainable and highly nutritious, helping to increase the efficiency of the aquaculture industry while reducing its environmental footprint.

Customers using Zooca® experience improved survival, growth and pigmentation in shrimp and fish. Recent feeding trials done with a 4 per cent inclusion of Zooca® Hydrolysate confirm this, showing an increased feed intake, better ability to convert feed into body mass, higher survival rates and improved intestinal health.

Zooca® SeaFrozen offers a convenient and nutritious alternative to labour-intensive brine shrimp (Artemia), commonly used as starter feeds for marine fish and shrimp larvae. It is ready to use and contains an optimal mix of oil, proteins, antioxidants and chitin.

Zooca® Hydrolysate, Zooca® AstaLipids and Zooca® Powder are also suitable as palatability enhancers in pet food, providing an attractive flavour and thus increasing food intake.

The aquaculture industry is expected to grow rapidly and expand significantly in the coming decades. This growth is driven by the increasing global population and the approaching production limits of capture fisheries.

Zooca® Hydrolysate, Zooca® Powder, and Zooca® AstaLipids primarily target feed producers worldwide, while Zooca® SeaFrozen is currently being marketed directly to shrimp farms.