Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

Sea Star Seafoods Ltd. (Sea Star), located in Clark's Harbour, is the largest processor and exporter of salted fish in Nova Scotia. The company is involved with salt fish manufacture with sales around the world. Principal markets include North America, South America and Europe. The business operates on year round basis processing both Canadian and imported raw material and operates with a 50,000 square feet. processing facility and staff of over 80 employees. In the course of its salt fish processing activity, Sea Star processes mackerel and generates by-product streams which are directed to lobster bait application. The lobster bait product (referred to as ""Gib"") is retained as frozen bulk product and sold in this format to regional lobster fishers. Despite the performance of mackerel bait, the wild fishery for mackerel and other bait species is under increasing strain and the use of human food species for lobster bait is causing sustainable development concerns. Sea Star now seeks the Nova Scotia Community College's support to address these issues and enable improvement of their baits' performance, construction and productivity.The proposed project will help optimize lobster bait performance, which represents a significant and growing business need in Canada. Opportunity will also be available for knowledge translation to benefit other fishers, in an effort to elevate overall quality and productivity in the region, directed to export markets. This will contribute in maintaining the position of Nova Scotia as a world leader for high quality fish and seafood.