About Topbalat
Topbalat is a sea cucumber value chain development project run by a team of entrepreneurs at Aurora Seafood who have led the development of sea cucumber fishing in Iceland for over 15 years.
The project is divided into three phases.
Phase 1
Development of a standardized sea cucumber fishing dredge and a next generation processing line.
Products available as part of phase one of our project include fishing gear and processing equipment.
Fishing Gear
Our specially developed environmentally friendly sea cucumber dredge
Processing Equipment
Sea Cucumber processing line–a complete solution for the processing of sea cucumbers.
Phase 2
Aid any European companies interested in utilizing our local sea cucumber species.
We operate two of the nine boats allowed to catch sea cucumbers around Iceland–Drangur ÁR and Klettur ÍS–and buys from two other fishing vessels as well. In order to keep sea cucumber fishing around Iceland sustainable, the government allows only a fixed volume to be caught every season which begins in July and ends in May, with fishing slowing down over the winter.
Sea Cucumbers (Cucumaria frondosa)
Frozen whole in 10 kg blocks for further processing.
Cut open from end to end, uncleaned (entrails in), frozen in 10 kg blocks.
After harvesting, the sea cucumbers are processed and frozen or dried at Krossfiskur, our processing plant in Stokkseyri, just south and east of Reykjavik. From Reykjavík or Þorlákshöfn the sea cucumbers are shipped to destinations all over the world.
Phase 3
The last steps involve a sea cucumber product launch in Europe and the finalization of a TRL 9 sea cucumber processing equipment, followed by the launch of sales of the processing equipment.
The Aurora Seafood team has already started preparations for phase 3.
About Our Team of Experts
Kári Ólafsson
is the founder of the first company to utilize sea cucumber in Europe and a food scientist with considerable experience in every step of the value chain.
Gunnar Þór Gunnarsson
is a processing expert with extensive experience in seafood processing and development.
Davíð Freyr Jónsson
is an entrepreneur and business developer at the front lines of new and underutilized species.
Our team of experts all share the vision of a sustainable, environmentally friendly utilization and responsible production of the best quality sea cucumbers. We believe that the world has a lot to learn about sea cucumbers and we aim to take full part in their fascinating future.
Get in touch with us to learn more about Topbalat.
Successful cooperation with the Icelandic Ocean Cluster
The Icelandic Ocean cluster have been promoting the Topblata project and the mission on [...]
02
Jun
Jun
Sledge operation test with pumping mechanics
This summer further testing on the fishing gear have been on going. To increase [...]
15
Aug
Aug
Topbalat Awarded Best Innovation Idea at The Seafood Conference Iceland
At 2018 The Seafood Conference Iceland, Topbalat´s sea cucumber processing machine innovation idea got awarded [...]
21
Dec
Dec
Aurora Seafood & Tmall Global Harvest Festival e-Sales Ad
Iceland is an island surrounded by clean ocean with great diversity of seafood which [...]
06
Nov
Nov
1.000 ton catch in one year for the first time.
Our ship Klettur has for the first time broke through the 1.000 ton barrier [...]
23
Aug
Aug
Fishing gear tests, comparison of Bergs Dredge and traditional ski dredge
In the end of June we along with researchers from the Marine & Freshwater Research [...]
11
Jul
Jul
Preparation for test fishing summer 2018
Last few weeks preparations for our comparison tests this summer have been on going. Tests [...]
18
May
May
First Berg´s Dredge (Sea Cucumber dredge) Ready for Testing
We now have our first sea cucumber dredge built from scaled blueprints. The design [...]
24
Feb
Feb