Geert Wiegertjes, formerly personal professor on fish immunology at the Cell Biology and Immunology group, now heads the Aquaculture and Fisheries (AFI) group at Wageningen University & Research. As such, his personal interest in fish immunology has broadened to include the interaction between fish nutrition and health in aquatic production systems. As head of AFI he plays a supportive role for research on several aspects of aquaculture, including fish nutrition, microbiome, water quality and fish health. He underscores the urgent and global need for a sustainable production of (shell)fish products in a world where demands for seafood are rising rapidly. To meet these increased demands, there is a strong need to find bio-inspired solutions to maintain Blue Growth and unravel critical factors limiting aquaculture and seafood production. In his recent TEDx talk on 'Why fish are food, not friends' he underscores the need for a sustainable production of fish and shellfish products in a world where demands for seafood are rising rapidly. While unravelling critical factors limiting aquaculture and seafood production, he calls to respect biodiversity, animal health and welfare. Geert Wiegertjes has been project coordinator and/or training coordinator of three EC-MSCA training networks (FP5, FP7) and work package leader of Imaquanim (FP6), ParaFishControl (H2020) and currently, AQUA-FAANG (H2020). He coordinated TargetFish (FP7), one of the larger research consortia on fish health and vaccination.