Attainable Sustainable Aquaculture (“ASA”) is a New Zealand company working around Pacific and Coral Triangle countries to develop regenerative mariculture projects with small-scale fishing communities. We partner with local communities, government authorities and
non-governmental organisations (NGO’s) to develop robust mariculture programs with speciality in sea cucumber and seaweed farming.

With over a third of seafood being fished at unsustainable rates around the world, aquaculture is being seen as a way to meet soaring demand without posing risks to fisheries and ecological collapses. However, aquaculture is not without sustainability issues and faces a world of challenges to overcome to be identified as a true sustainable solution, especially community-based models where implementing business aspects and providing financial sustainability alongside the social and environmental benefits is often over-looked. At ASA, we utilise all three aspects of sustainability; Environmental, Social and Financial, commonly known as the triple bottom line of sustainability to provide truly sustainable aquaculture programs.

Our focus on sea cucumber mariculture is to work closely with partners and produce juvenile sandfish (Holothuria scabra) through the latest hatchery techniques. We build non-intrusive ocean based pens and provide training to community farmers that allows them the opportunity to own and
operate their own farms, resulting in local economic empowerment and governance. Farms are low-cost and require little technical expertise which allows for gender mainstreaming and equal employment opportunities for all ages and abilities. Farmers harvest their sea cucumbers once they have reached a marketable size and with ASA support, process to high quality to be sold to trusted buyers internationally, ensuring higher returns to the farmers.

By engaging in a sustainable, alternative livelihood, the need to fish for wild sea cucumbers is reduced significantly and communities have the financial freedom to partake in further resource management activities with partner organisations. Our farms act as aggregated breeding zones, resulting in a spill-over of sea cucumber larvae which repopulates the wild population and we ensure that the farms are allocated as ‘no-take-zones’ for all marine life, creating mini Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) usually located over seagrass habitats important for fish rejuvenation.