Last Update: July 19, 2005

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Marine Bioactives

Atlantic Canada produced over 350,000 tonnes of waste from the fishing and aquaculture industries in 2002. To help industry capitalize on the tremendous potential for product diversification and value addition, MI will soon open the Atlantic Canada Fishery By-Products Research Centre. Its purpose is to use innovative research and development to encourage commercial by-product utilization.

The $5.3 million, 3-year fishery by-products initiative includes $2.3 million capital for the development of a research and development pilot plant in St. John’s, and state-of the -art research technologies for six university research partners including labs at Memorial, Dalhousie, St. Francis Xavier, and McGill Universities.

The Marine Institute, guided by an industrial advisory board will manage and direct the project and be the hub for pre-commercial development of extraction, isolation and concentration processes for marine bioactive compounds. Nigel Allen will direct the by-products centre and will be brining together a host of pan-Atlantic Canada experts that will create new products and industrial processes with the new infrastructure. Biochemists, process engineers, and lab technicians are among those who will work at the centre.

This centre will yield significant benefits for the Atlantic Canadian region including the enhancement of waste management, controlling production costs and creating stable employment. The goal is to build knowledge and put it to work for biotechnology, nutraceutical and food companies. And by reducing the waste in fishery and aquaculture sectors, all parties involved will benefit by having a better environment.