People say summer is quiet – colleagues take annual leave, events wind down and industry gets chance to regroup for the coming growing season. Wrong! What a busy summer it’s been for CIEL & Aquaculture!

Since I joined the organisation in May 2022, I’ve really enjoyed leading the engagement within the UK Aquaculture sector. CIEL’s Membership has continued to grow and the success of the 22/23 aquaculture seed funding research (link to page) really gave a great hook (pun intended!) to move engagement forward.

If you know me, you’ll know that I’m passionate about engaging with stakeholders across the aquaculture sector and delivering what they want to accelerate innovation in aquaculture. So, I (with support from the wider CIEL team – thanks guys!) embarked on a UK Tour across the four nations! Sadly, no guitars and roadies in tow, but we did engage with the diverse nature of the UK aquaculture sector.

Scotland is king when it comes to production value and volume but the smaller, more artisanal sectors such as trout, oyster and production, …. in the other nations of the UK are just as important to the development of UK aquaculture as a whole, as Scottish salmon is to the sector north of the boarder.

So, four workshops later in four fantastic venues across the UK, the countless topics discussed from bioremediation to valorisation of waste, the report with the workshops’ outputs has given me fresh impetus and direction.

Throughout the whole process, I’ve worked with Martin Syvret at Aquafish Solutions, and we’ve created succinct booklet highlighting the main areas of focus in each nation and where CIEL can have the biggest impact across UK aquaculture sector. We’ve entitled the booklet “Accelerating Innovation in Aquaculture” and I’m really excited to share this with you all and lead this next chapter in CIEL’s aquaculture work.

Now, I know there may be a sense of “we’ve been here before, what’s new?”, and I’m acutely aware that without delivering on the ideas and initiatives outlined in the booklet, risks repeating the disappointment of where other strategies and initiatives have failed the industry in the past.

I’m absolutely determined to ensure that the Booklet is a working document everyone can buy into and, most importantly, delivers innovative solutions for some of the issues facing the UK aquaculture sector. This resource needs to deliver and, the sector is stuck with me for some time to come!

The Accelerating Innovation in Aquaculture booklet is now available to download from the CIEL website (Link) along with separate factsheets for each of the Nations. If you have and questions about the Booklet, have any questions or would like to discuss this further,  please get in touch with me, Martin Sutcliffe