Fish Frontiers: A Closer Look at New Cell- and Plant-Based Seafood

BY DANA TRICARICO

Photo by Jaron Nix

With the looming threat of overfishing, and human health problems coupled with the push for sustainable fisheries, the seafood industry is seeing a trend in alternative options, much like the meat industry. With substitute meat products like Beyond Meat and the Impossible Burger grabbing headlines, the noticeable gap in alternative seafood options has been recognized, and thus, is beginning to ramp up. In early 2016, plant-based tuna was created by the company, Good Catch, by using six different legumes, with more plant-based seafood options on the way. Now, we are starting to see research not just on plant-based seafood, but on cell-based seafood options. In fact, a study was released just this year discussing the intricacies and potential for cell-based fish.

In its simplest terms, cellular agriculture creates agricultural products from cell cultures, rather than from plants or animals. Companies like BlueNalu, are beginning to grow fish flesh from a biopsy’s worth of fish cells, rather than harvesting these species from the ocean. This culture is fed by a custom blend of vitamins, amino acids and sugars and will facilitate growth of these cells into broad sheets of muscle tissue. From both an animal welfare and sustainable fishery standpoint, cells need to only be drawn from a fish once, and with more research, could even provide an opportunity for the fish to be placed back in their natural marine environment alive.

What’s the vision? A world where cities house large facilities with the capacity to meet the (cell-based) seafood needs of more than 10 million residents in the facility’s radius. The next steps for this company to achieve this big picture goal is to begin test marketing cell-grown Mahi-Mahi near San Diego, California within two to three years.

The idea of cell-based ANYTHING may seem less than appealing to most who are new to the concept. The smell and texture of fish is incredibly important to the consumer, so rest assured that companies in this cutting edge field are spending the necessary time to get it right. The team at Good Catch spent the first few years making sure those factors aligned with the market standard.

In the interdisciplinary field of marine science, this shows an incredible connection between aquaculture and biomedical engineering. These two facets of alternative seafood have the potential to work together towards more sustainable fisheries. Needless to say, there is still a lot to test in this young field. However, as more of these products come on the market, this could help move the needle for some individuals who are on the edge of vegetarianism.