Going green in the blue economy
Atlantic companies target fish waste and clean energy
It’s unlikely many people think about the amount of fish skin and bones left after a codfish is cut up on the factory line to make filets for restaurants and supermarkets.
Ben Wiper does – and the numbers are astounding. The waste generated just from cod caught and processed in Newfoundland and Labrador is in the hundreds of tonnes.
“For the past few years, the average cod quota is 11,000 metric tons, and about 60 per cent of that is considered waste. So that’s about 450 metric tons of cod skin waste and 600 metric tons of head and backbone waste,” he said.
Wiper’s Newfoundland-based company, 3F Waste Recovery, is aiming to turn some of that waste into commercially valuable products.
He has already manufacturing pet treats from codfish waste that are now on some store shelves, and Wiper says he’s close to signing deals with a couple of major Canadian retailers.
Then there's the aquaculture industry where cleaner fish, like lumpfish, will eventually wind up in the waste stream.
Baby lumpfish solve a problem for salmon farmers by eating the lice that develop on salmon in ocean cages. However, once lumpfish grow bigger, they become a problem because they start harming the salmon flesh. They become useless and have to be culled. Wiper is already using lumpfish to create compost.
The revenue generated from the treats and compost is helping fund a bigger idea to produce collagen from fish waste for the pharmaceutical market.
But before he can get there, he has to figure out how to produce a collagen molecule small enough for pharmaceutical use – specifically for skincare products.
To do that, he’s getting a bit of help from a research lab at the Marine Institute in St. John’s. The lab will do a small run of powered collagen to ensure the process works the way researchers think it should. After that, said Wiper, it should just be a matter of multiplying all the ingredients in the recipe to scale up to a commercial production line.
Wiper’s idea isn't limited to cod. He imagines the waste from other fisheries across Atlantic Canada — redfish, flounder and halibut, to name just a few — and how much collagen could be made from all that residue.
Like any entrepreneur, Wiper is out to turn a profit. Still, his main focus is sustainable business operations that solve environmental problems while making money.
FUNDING IDEAS
It’s that kind of thinking that enabled Wiper to acquire funding from the Ocean Startup Challenge (OSC) last year for more research on collagen extraction.
His idea was one of a dozen that made the shortlist and earned him a $25,000 grant.
Dan Grant, executive director of the OSC, said while the criteria for the funding program is fairly broad, ideas that involve sustainable solutions are of particular interest.
“The ocean is the most critical ecosystem on earth, and from that perspective, the start-up challenge is keen to encourage ideas that offer a solution to a problem in a sustainable way,” he said.
And there's no shortage of unique ideas being pitched.
Since the first competition last year, Eric Siegel, executive in residence at the OSP, says they’ve seen many great ideas, like using waste from other fisheries to create bait for lobster fishers.
Traditionally, getting bait for lobster pots means catching other fish or buying bait from a supplier.
“The problem for lobster fishers,” said Siegal, “is the cost of bait can fluctuate. Collectively, the industry spends about $100 million annually just to bait lobster pots.”
Then there’s the cost of fuel and time to fish for bait, not to mention the potential long-term impact on mackerel and herring stocks, which are typically caught for bait but are becoming depleted. The biomass is so low that in 2019, these fish were listed in the “critical zone” in Atlantic Canada.
SuBait Inc., based in Dartmouth, N.S., is working to develop a product that will use the wasted bits from seafood processing lines to make a lobster bait.
The project ticks a couple of boxes, said Siegal.
By offering an alternative source, it could eliminate the need to fish for bait — reducing not only fuel costs but the emissions from fishing trips. Using waste from seafood processing could eliminate the need to fish for herring and mackerel for bait, thereby reducing pressure on those fish stocks.
GETTING CREATIVE, REDUCING HARM
Fish waste is also the basis for an idea being explored by a Prince Edward Island company, Kavacha, which hopes to develop a barnacle-resistant coating using chitosan extracted from fish waste.
Coatings that currently protect hulls, buoys and other equipment used in seawater feature paints containing plastics, zinc oxides and copper. Those ingredients leach into the water over time, impacting the marine environment.
Kavacha is using the funds it won to do more research and test its idea.
Harm reduction in the ocean environment is also a core principle for several ideas being supported by the OSC, like the work being done by Sue Molloy’s Glas Ocean Electric company in Nova Scotia.
Molloy has been working on an idea since 2016 to develop batteries to convert boats from diesel to electric, reducing carbon emissions created by watercraft.
Last year, she teamed up with a tour boat operator to test drive her lithium-ion battery pack prototype on The Alutasi.
Owned and operated by Murphy’s on the Water in Halifax, the boat is the first vessel powered by lithiumion batteries ever approved by Transport Canada’s Marine Technical Review Board.
This year, she’ll put the prototype to test on a fishing boat.
The prototypes she’s testing are good for day-trippers – 30- to 40-foot-long boats that would return to homeport every day to recharge. The batteries could, eventually, be complementary to the diesel power, creating a hybrid system that would allow the operator to switch back and forth from diesel to battery. If all goes well, Molloy hopes to have a commercial product ready for market and hundreds of boats using the hybrid system.
The benefits for the environment could be substantial. There are about 15,000 fishing boats alone between Quebec and Newfoundland, she says, all using diesel engines for power.
“There are no catalytic converters on those diesel engines, so there’s no filtration. The stuff that’s coming out of the engines is the same that’s been coming out of the engines since the 1960s,” said Molloy.
Fuel savings and emission reductions are not the only benefits. The hybrid system runs quiet, meaning it’s a more comfortable environment for the crew and less noise in the ocean.
COMPETITION OPEN
This year, the OSC will offer over $1 million in funding to help more entrepreneurial ideas like these.
What these companies are proving, says Grant, is that you can be financially viable while helping the planet at the same time.
“What we’re seeing (is) investors and financiers, they’re also looking for sustainable ocean solutions,” said Grant.
“The largest asset manager in the world – BlackRock – is moving towards a sustainable portfolio. And banks are also talking about things like the Poseidon Principle … if they’re going to finance a shipping and transportation company, they have to demonstrate how they are reducing their carbon impact.”
Doing business in the ocean economy is no longer just about creating jobs and making money. Sustainability is a big part of the equation.
That means companies seeking funding from lenders and investors, and groups like OSC, not only have to show a return on investment but also have to show they're benefiting the planet.