In 2022, for the first time, farms produced more aquatic animals than capture fisheries: 94.4 million tonnes, or 51% of the world total [1]. Greece leads the EU in Mediterranean fish farming. In 2024 its 73 companies produced 114,500 tonnes of gilthead sea bream and European sea bass worth about €721 million, exported 94,132 tonnes and supported some 12,000 jobs [2]. The producers’ organization names two pressing challenges: spatial planning that is still incomplete – only 7 of 23 planned aquaculture zones have been established in 14 years – and competition from Türkiye, whose output of the two species now exceeds that of the whole EU [2].
From egg to plate. Farmed sea bream and sea bass begin life in a hatchery. Broodstock are conditioned by light and temperature to spawn, larvae are raised on live plankton and weaned onto dry feed, and juveniles of about one gram, some three months old, move on to nurseries and sea cages to grow to market size [3]. A hatchery sits just above sea level so that clean seawater can be pumped in, and depends on filtration, UV treatment, aeration and an emergency generator [3]; the quality of its juveniles shapes the rest of the production cycle. Feed alone accounts for about 60% of production costs [4].
The Sitia story. At Agios Andreas, near Palaikastro, a land-based marine hatchery was under construction in 1995 for the company Ιχθυοκαλλιέργειες Κρήτης, which needed seawater intake and discharge pipes across the foreshore [5]. In December 1999 the Kastelorizo group, best known for its Athens restaurants, bought 58% of that company [6]. Business listings still place ΚΑΣΤΕΛΟΡΙΖΟ ΙΧΘΥΟΚΑΛΛΙΕΡΓΕΙΕΣ ΚΡΗΤΗΣ ΑΕ at Agios Andreas [7]; in 2025 the group was reported to run fish-farming units at Sitia and at Palaia Fokaia in Attica [8], and in 2021 it put the combined output of its Crete and Attica units at about 500 tonnes of fish and 5 million juveniles a year, a significant share sold to other farms, while its founder said he wanted to sell the fish-farming business [9].
What still needs checking. Public sources do not give the site’s current license, capacity, species, certifications or monitoring results; these must be confirmed with the operator and the authority before any claim is published, and their absence online is not evidence of non-compliance. The EU’s 2021–2030 guidelines set the test for any farm – resilience and competitiveness, a green transition, social acceptance and consumer information, knowledge and innovation – and the linked Farm to Fork strategy aims to halve sales of antimicrobials for farmed animals and aquaculture by 2030 [10]. For hatchery, meaningful indicators include pumping energy, intake and discharge water quality, medicines and disinfectants used, survival and deformity rates, and waste handling.
Blue careers and BLUE OCEAN. One juvenile fish depends on aquaculture biologists, fish-health vets, water-quality analysts, technicians for pumps, sensors and backup power, nutritionists, and quality and logistics staff. For BLUE OCEAN, whose partner schools in Malta, Italy, French Polynesia and Greece promote blue careers [11], the case lets students follow one fish from broodstock to plate, map the skills and data behind each step, and practice source literacy by placing a 1995 legal record, a 1999 business deal and a 2021 press interview on one timeline. The group’s Attica farm, which since 2019 has welcomed scuba divers to change how the public sees fish farming, offers island partners a comparison topic [12]. BLUE OCEAN group meeting in Sitia had scheduled a visit at the company’s farm in Agios Andreas under the coordination and the offer of a nice hosting of the general manager Mr. Stylianos Poulakakis.
Sources (web pages accessed 21 September 2026)
[1] FAO (2024). The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2024 – key messages. Rome.
[2] HAPO / ΕΛΟΠΥ (2025). 11th Annual Aquaculture Report (2024 data), as reported by Sofokleousin.gr, 26 Oct 2025.
[3] FAO. Marine hatchery design and operation for sea bass and sea bream (doc. S6096E); FAO (2009) cultured species fact sheet: European seabass.
[4] IMBBC-HCMR. Fish nutrition research line. imbbc.hcmr.gr
[5] Legal Council of the State opinion, POL 1200/18.7.1995 (taxheaven.gr).
[6] Naftemporiki (2022). [A taste journey starting from “Kastelorizo”], 24 Oct 2022.
[7] xo.gr business listing: ΚΑΣΤΕΛΟΡΙΖΟ ΙΧΘΥΟΚΑΛΛΙΕΡΓΕΙΕΣ ΚΡΗΤΗΣ ΑΕ, Agios Andreas, Lasithi.
[8] Forbes Greece (2025). [Antonis Stavrou (Kastelorizo Group) “fishes” in real estate too], 2 June 2025.
[9] Capital.gr (2021). [Kastelorizo Group: the divestment from fish and the restaurant bet], 12 Nov 2021.
[10] European Commission (2021). Strategic guidelines for a more sustainable and competitive EU aquaculture 2021–2030, COM(2021) 236.
[11] BLUE OCEAN Erasmus+ project, 2024-MT01-KA220-SCH-00254518. blueoceanerasmus.com[12] EC Maritime Spatial Planning platform. Case study: Diving in the Kastelorizo aquaculture farm