Aker BioMarine AS
Oksenøyveien 10, NO-1366
Lysaker, Norway
Phone: + 47 24 13 00 00
Matts Johansen
CEO of Aker BioMarine
Aker BioMarine is a biotech innovator and Antarctic krill-harvesting company, dedicated to improving human and planetary health. The company develops krill-based ingredients for nutraceutical, aquaculture, and animal feed applications. The company’s fully transparent value chain stretches from sustainable krill harvesting in pristine Antarctic waters through its Montevideo logistics hub, Houston production plant, and all the way to customers around the world.
Before being named the CEO in 2015, Matts Johansen was the COO of Aker BioMarine. As the CEO of Aker BioMarine, Johansen is on a mission to improve human and planetary health. Prior to joining Aker BioMarine in 2009, he was the CMO at Telefonica O2.
Here is the continuation of his interview featured in the magazine:
NIE: In 2017, The Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP) gave Aker BioMarine’s krill fishery operations in the Antarctic and “A” rating for the third year in a row. What is the importance of the rating?
Johansen: Sustainability is more important now than ever before. Essentially, it’s not a choice, but a prerequisite to do business in the krill industry.
Sustainability is a major focus area for our business and something that Aker BioMarine takes very seriously. Before deploying our very first fishing net in the Southern Ocean, we began working on a sound sustainability plan to ensure that our operations would have low impact on the Antarctic ecosystem. We have set goals to help solve the global challenges that will impact and determine the future of our business: loss of biodiversity, resource scarcity, increases in lifestyle diseases and climate change. Our long-term commitment is to improve human and planetary health.
Transparency is an integral part of sustainability. Our company’s fully transparent value chain stretches from sustainable krill harvesting in pristine Antarctic waters through our Montevideo logistics hub, Houston production plant, and all the way to customers around the world.
To that end, this rating is extremely important as it legitimizes our operations and krill as a marine source of omega-3 within the planet’s carrying capacity. The rating states that the krill fishery is the only reduction fishery globally that has a biomass in very good condition. The SFP report evidently shows that fisheries worldwide need to show greater precaution with regards to catch limits. We hope that their rating will encourage fisheries around the world to become more sustainable.
NIE: Please discuss Aker BioMarine’s global health campaign, “The truth is not always what it seems.”
Johansen: Things are not always what they seem is an important message pertaining to health and wellness and, as we know, being healthy goes well beyond eating right and exercising regularly. Omega-3 deficiency is a severe problem influencing a majority of our world’s population, and similar to high cholesterol or high blood pressure, you can’t feel a low omega-3 level. This is the reason why we decided to create a global health campaign that not only brought attention to omega-3 deficiency, but also gave consumers the tools and resources they needed to make educated decisions regarding their omega-3 health.
As part of this international campaign, our team travelled to a remote area of Greenland called Kapisillit (a major fishing village) to create a short film about how important omega-3 intake really is. The film followed a traditional Kapisillit family that fished often and consumed high levels of omega-3s. The film also shadowed their daughter, Maria, who was visiting from the city. Maria appeared to live a healthy and balanced life⎯including a well-rounded diet and regular exercise, but after taking an Omega-3 Index Test, she realized that her low levels put her in a high-risk zone.
To that end, the film’s theme suggests that things aren’t always what they seem and therefore, Maria was tasked to increase her omega-3s EPA and DHA through diet and supplementation. This film was created to pull on our heartstrings and convey the message that omega-3 testing is an important piece of the overall health puzzle.
Luckily, today everyone has the ability to test their levels using the Omega-3 Index Test, a simple kit that measures the percentage of EPA and DHA in red blood cells. A result of 8-12 percent is associated with better, overall health, and a lower risk for premature death. Anything less than 8 percent puts us in the least desirable risk zones. By knowing our numbers, we can take the steps to make a positive change.
NIE: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Johansen: In addition to our ongoing sports nutrition study, Aker BioMarine has partnered with scientists from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) to investigate if krill oil can improve performance and mental health of some of the toughest U.S. military recruits under extreme stress. This randomized double-blinded, placebo-controlled study involving more than 400 army recruits is looking at resilience, cognitive processes and overall performance and will conclude later this year.
