Successful approaches to pests, diseases and invasive species carried in water must have certain common characteristics:
— Effective
— Affordable
— Robust
— Environmentally benign
Technologies based on biology have a natural head start in giving us what we need. Evolution drives natural solutions to many problems.
We need to take the best that nature has to offer, adapt it and develop it, to deliver practical products that can deliver answers to some of the problems that we face.
At Sundew, we are starting with diseases of ornamental and farmed fish but our long-term vision is much wider. In other important aquaculture species (such as shrimp, oysters and seaweed). Then, as time goes on, we want to address other aquatic problems:
Algal blooms, like the infamous red tides, which can cause massive environmental and economic damage
Invasive species that threaten aquatic biodiversity and cause economic damage to industries ranging from power to tourism
In the long term, perhaps even human diseases where the pathogen is carried in water, such as bilharzia or schistosomiasis.