The South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s mission is to “provide leadership in environmental management, conservation and protection towards sustainability for the benefit of South Africa and the global community”. The DFFE has a National Aquaculture Research Aquarium that is situated in Sea Point near Cape Town along the West Coast of South Africa and is one of the first dedicated multifunctional aquaculture research facilities of its kind in South Africa. This DFFE national facility supports research and technology development, as well as capacity development for the developing aquaculture industry in South Africa and includes several wet and dry laboratories, live animal holding facilities, hatcheries, algal culture facilities and grow-out facilities.

Alongside the University of Cape Town (UCT) and VIKING Aquaculture, the DFFE operates the IMTA lab in South Africa. The DFFE are involved in each of the ASTRAL work packages and their role is to contribute towards promoting the generation of new knowledge on existing land-based pump ashore IMTA systems and the development of new species and sustainable aquaculture technologies within South Africa with the objective of promoting broader uptake of IMTA technology, capacity development and sustainable growth of the sector, as well as the development of sector plans and policies.

The ASTRAL research conducted by the DFFE and UCT aims to improve circularity, reduce waste, understand microbial dynamics, investigate new species combinations, and improve sustainability and profitability; to promote the uptake of IMTA technology for the sustainable growth of the South African and global aquaculture sector and to identify best practices for IMTA.