Maritime Industry Briefing: Aquaculture By-Product Innovation Shows Promise for Sustainable Feed Supply Chains

## Maritime Industry Briefing — September 16, 2026 ### Fish-Processing By-Products Yield High-Value Nutritional Supplement in Canadian Partnership A novel collaboration between NRGene Canada and Ile-a-la-Crosse Fish Company Inc. is drawing attention from aquaculture and seafood processing stakeholders for its potential to transform fish-processing waste into a high-value nutritional product. According to a press release issued September 16, 2026, NRGene Canada has successfully reared its proprietary MaxBSF™ black soldier fly larvae on fish-processing by-products sourced through the Saskatchewan-based Ile-a-la-Crosse Fish Company. The resulting larvae were found to contain the marine omega-3 fatty acids EPA and DHA — compounds typically associated with fish oil supplements and widely valued in both human nutrition and animal feed markets. The development carries meaningful implications for the maritime and seafood processing industries. Fish processing operations routinely generate significant volumes of by-product material — including offcuts, viscera, and frames — that present both a disposal challenge and a latent resource. The ability to channel these materials into insect-rearing systems that produce omega-3-enriched larvae could offer processors an additional revenue stream while simultaneously reducing waste volumes and associated handling costs. 'The potential for a higher-value nutritional supplement for poultry' is cited by the companies as a primary near-term application, though the omega-3 profile of the larvae may also attract interest from aquafeed formulators seeking to reduce dependence on wild-caught forage fish as a source of marine lipids — a longstanding sustainability concern within the global aquaculture sector. The partnership reflects a broader industry trend toward circular economy models in seafood supply chains, where by-products that were once considered liabilities are being repositioned as inputs for adjacent industries. Similar approaches have been explored in Norway, Iceland, and Chile, where large-scale fish processing infrastructure has made by-product valorisation an economic priority. For port communities and regional fish processors — particularly those operating in remote or Indigenous-led enterprises such as Ile-a-la-Crosse — the model may offer a pathway to improved margins without requiring significant increases in catch volumes or processing capacity. The companies have not yet disclosed commercial scale timelines or details regarding regulatory approval pathways for the larvae-derived product in Canadian feed markets. Industry observers will be watching to see whether the omega-3 retention demonstrated at research scale can be replicated consistently in larger production runs. *Source: PR Newswire, September 16, 2026*