Costa

COSTA was founded in 1997 by Magnus van der Meer. COSTA offers independent consultancy services in the fields of aquaculture and fisheries. Magnus’ work experience in the field of aquaculture includes production of catfish and eel in RAS systems in the Netherlands, tilapia farming in Africa and fish nutrition research and extensive shrimp farming in ponds in Latin America. In fishery, work has been carried out on Nile perch and tilapia fisheries in large African lakes and on a wide range of fisheries in the Netherlands such as eel, pike-perch, mullet, mussels and cockles.

As training and research were always part of the work, services of COSTA include writing business plans, feasibility studies and project designing & management. COSTA has extensive experience on sustainability issues, such as organic fish farming, fishery certification and setting up chains-of-custody for fish products.

Reference projects

• Project design in aquaculture and fisheries in Mozambique and Angola (FAO, IFAD)
• Project design for tilapia pond farming and fishing
• Setting up a chain for sustainable wild-caught Nile perch and tilapia in Lake Kyoga and Lake Victoria
• Management and execution of the annual PODD (Eels-over-the-dyke) and national stocking programme of eels (DUPAN and Ministry of Agriculture and Food security)
• Management of the DAK project (Duurzaam Aalbeheer door Kennis): a research project in which 3 research institutes and local fishermen cooperate in setting standards for sustainable eel management in the Netherlands, dak-project.nl
• Kyoga Wild, Greenfields, Uganda
• Training of fish farmers, the Netherlands