Harvesting Seafood Innovation

Can Wilmington become the home of seafood innovation in the United States? A two-day workshop coming this month to the University of North Carolina Wilmington is primed to go a long way toward reaching that goal.

Fish 2.0 is a global effort to connect entrepreneurs with partners and investors who can help develop the next generation of seafood-related businesses.

The Wilmington event April 23-24 aims to attract participants from across the South Atlantic region from Florida up to Maryland. This is actually the second time UNCW has hosted a regional Fish 2.0 session, with the 2017 version opening eyes locally and around the country to the Cape Fear region’s potential in developing solutions for challenges facing seafood production, supply chain and trade.

Diane Durance, director of UNCW’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is the lead for the Fish 2.0 event in Wilmington. She sees her organization’s role as being a leader in developing entrepreneurial solutions to challenges in the marine environment such as pollution, seafood safety, climate change, and reversing a trend that is seeing a significant decline in seafood that is wild caught as opposed to farmed, leading to seafood shortages.

“If we don’t conquer this we won’t have fish on the menu,” she said.

 

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