Aquaculture Development Solutions Podcast

Aquaculture Development Solutions

Aquaculture Development Solutions is a podcast about the science, business, and policy of aquaculture in developing countries. Hosted by aquaculture researchers Bas de Vos and Siyabonga Mdletshe, each episode brings in a specialist to dig into a specific challenge or opportunity facing the sector. The conversations cover a wide range: seaweed farming, species diversification, animal health, product development, socio-economics, and collaboration. The guests are researchers, entrepreneurs, and practitioners working at the frontier of what aquaculture can become for the developing countries.

Episodes

  1. Jun 7

    Aquatic Animal Health in Aquaculture: Disease, Diagnosis, and Holistic Management

    Dr. Isabelle Arzul is a research scientist at Ifremer in La Tremblade, France, one of the most important oyster-producing regions in Europe. A veterinarian by training with a PhD on oyster herpesvirus, she has spent over 20 years specializing in shellfish diseases. She led the EU Reference Laboratory for Mollusc Diseases for nearly 15 years and now heads the ASIM team (Adaptation and Health of Marine Invertebrates) at Ifremer, which combines research with diagnosis, surveillance, and training across the European national laboratory network. In this episode, we look at aquatic animal health through the lens of someone operating at the highest level of the field. Isabelle walks us through the role of reference laboratories and why Europe has built a coordinated network of public institutions to harmonize disease surveillance across countries. She explains why disease outbreaks are never just about the pathogen, covering the interplay between the host, environment, and husbandry practices, and how this understanding has led to concrete, practical changes on oyster farms, including a farming calendar that reduced mortality by 30%. We also get into the difference between listed and unlisted diseases, diagnostic methods from histology to PCR, selective breeding for disease resistance, and a fascinating vaccination-like approach that primes oyster immune systems against herpesvirus before exposure. While Isabelle's expertise is in shellfish, the principles translate directly to abalone, sea urchins, and other species being developed across southern Africa. This episode is part of the LIMAQUA Focus Series, produced under the LIMAQUA Programme, a South African-French joint research initiative on nutrition-sensitive marine aquaculture.

    44 min
  2. Jun 7

    Beyond Abalone: Diversifying South African Aquaculture

    Marissa Brink-Hull is a production scientist at the Department of Forestry, Fisheries, and the Environment, with a PhD in genetics from Stellenbosch University and postdoctoral experience on EU-funded IMTA research across the Atlantic. Her work spans population genetics, hatchery and grow-out technology for low-trophic species, and microbiome dynamics in aquaculture systems, with a particular focus on advancing the Cape Sea Urchin and collector urchin toward commercial viability in South Africa. Niall Vine is Associate Professor of Zoology at the University of Fort Hare, where he heads the Fort Hare Aquaculture Research Unit. His career has spanned probiotic development for fish, marine hatchery management, and research on species ranging from copepods and abalone to seahorses, silver cob, and sea cucumbers. In this episode, we dig into species diversification as both a commercial risk-reduction strategy and a food security tool. Marissa walks us through the state of sea urchin aquaculture in South Africa, covering the differences between the warm-water collector urchin and the cold-water Cape Sea Urchin, and why the latter is particularly well suited to integration with existing abalone farm infrastructure. We then look at IMTA system design, including a small-scale study integrating sea urchins, seaweed, and bloodworms in a circular system, and what scaling that up actually looks like in practice. Neil brings in his own bloodworm research, the fatty acid case for using worms in broodstock diets, and what diversification has looked like across his wide-ranging research career. This episode is part of the LIMAQUA Focus Series, produced under the LIMAQUA Programme, a South African-French joint research initiative on nutrition-sensitive marine aquaculture.

    52 min

About

Aquaculture Development Solutions is a podcast about the science, business, and policy of aquaculture in developing countries. Hosted by aquaculture researchers Bas de Vos and Siyabonga Mdletshe, each episode brings in a specialist to dig into a specific challenge or opportunity facing the sector. The conversations cover a wide range: seaweed farming, species diversification, animal health, product development, socio-economics, and collaboration. The guests are researchers, entrepreneurs, and practitioners working at the frontier of what aquaculture can become for the developing countries.