Marine aquaculture (fish, shellfish, algae culture) is a leading sector of the Atlantic area blue economy that counts on an important tradition in many EU countries and that is relevant in many of its coasts. As only 10% of Atlantic shore seafood is aquaculture-sourced there is great opportunity for raising AA aquaculture production in a sustainable way which is the main goal of Access2Sea In this context, its objective is to enhance the exploitation and preservation of the AA’s natural assets:

• By unlocking the existing barriers (legal/regulatory, technological, existence of suitable areas in costal zones, social acceptance) to provide the industry with technical solutions to give aquaculture businesses access to shore
• By enabling onshore production
• By disseminating existing and new solutions and providing support to the aquaculture SMEs, to fix them or attract them to the Atlantic Area

This way it is expected to enable SMEs to assess spatial opportunities to settle in the Atlantic shore new aquaculture business, supporting them in exploiting the natural assets in a sustainable way as well as in improving its performance through the improvement of their business model and be better accepted by local communities.

It is also expected that Access2Sea improves the cooperation between stakeholders, business support organizations, research institutes, national and regional administrations and local councils facilitating the innovation and knowledge transfer in Aquaculture sector.