Ten companies will compete for a $100,000 grand prize in a head-to-head competition.
The F3 – Future of Fish Feed has selected ten companies to compete in the F3 Krill Replacement Challenge, a contest designed to spark innovation for alternatives to krill in aquaculture feed.
The companies’ products will compete in a head-to-head competition – against each other and krill and fishmeal controls – in a 12-week feed trail on Atlantic salmon, a widely consumed fish known by farmers to be finicky eaters. The company with the krill replacement product that results in the best growth, feed consumption, and survival will be announced as the winner.
WHO CAN PARTICIPATE?
The contest is open to 10 companies or teams that are either the owners or licensees of the rights to distribute the distinct formulation of the feed additive, attractant, or other feed enhancing product, which may be used as a krill replacement in aquaculture feeds. F3 invites innovators from the feed additive, ingredient, synthetic biology, and all other relevant sectors to enter their products in the challenge. DOWNLOAD COMPETITOR PACKET
HOW TO WIN
The company or team with the top performing F3 Krill Replacement will win a USD $100,000 prize. Performance against the control diets will be based on a combination of weight gain, observed feed consumption and survival. For more details on winner determination, see the F3 Krill Replacement Challenge Official Rules. DOWNLOAD OFFICIAL RULES
WHY REPLACE KRILL?
Krill is a popular aquaculture feed ingredient for its nutritional benefits and use as an attractant that enhances palatability and fish growth.
Demand for krill as a feed ingredient is growing as fish farmers look for new sources of attractants that also provide nutritional benefits. As fishmeal and fish oil are replaced with alternative ingredients not naturally found in the diets, the need for attractants and palatants is growing. The commercial krill fishery located in the Antarctic has steadily increased production over the last decade from a high of 200,000 tons in 2010 to 450,000 tons in 2020. The rapidly expanding industrial fishery raises important sustainability concerns, especially due to climate change.
A wide variety of marine life depends upon these tiny shrimp-like crustaceans at the base of the marine food chain including whales, penguins, and commercially important wild fisheries like salmon, rockfish, squid, and sardines. Sharp declines in Antarctic krill densities have occurred in recent years, which are thought to be the result of climate-induced changes in ocean temperature, currents, acidification and regional overfishing.
A 2021 report in the journal Communications Biology showed a 50 percent decline in krill abundance over the last 60 years across the North Atlantic Basin associated with the region’s warming climate. Other recent studies found that increased fishing activity coupled with the impacts of climate change resulted in a decline in penguin population sizes and fewer humpback whale pregnancies in Antarctica.
Krill, which concentrate in massive swarms that can be seen from space, also play an important role in climate mitigation by locking up carbon in the deep ocean.
Reducing the dependence on wild-caught marine ingredients such as krill can help future-proof the aquaculture feed industry from supply chain disruptions and help ensure resiliency of marine ecosystems.
