MariFish Inc. is a newly established living lab and incubator for start-ups in the fields of aquaculture and innovative fishery located in Ostend, Belgium. More specifically, MariFish Inc. brings together entrepreneurial expertise with the commercial support of the Flemish fish auctions. In addition, it is backed by several scientific institutions with a strong track record in aquaculture (Ghent University) and innovative fisheries techniques (ILVO). It offers dedicated, flexible, food safety compliant growing space for aquafarmers and supplies large quantities of good quality sea water, ready to use . In addition, there is the option of extensive lab support for the tenants and participants of the incubator. As such, this new initiative aims at lowering the entrepreneurial risk for newly established aquaculture ventures.
Initially, the incubator and living lab target the incubation of start-ups active in sustainable seafood production, for example:
* Onshore farming of seaweed, fish, crustaceans and shellfish
* Onshore processing of mariculture production at sea, e.g. making ready to sell
mussels/ oysters
* Watering of mariculture products
* Supporting technology to carry out the three previous activities
(quality monitoring, big data, sensor technology, intelligent packing)
In the longer term, the activity domain will be extended to the biorefining of marine products such as e.g. products or molecules refined from marine raw materials or aquaculture products (e.g. from seaweed).