Taking Aquaculture Offshore, Beyond the Blue Horizon
Putting fish back into the ocean?
Not such a crazy idea—and we just might save the planet at the same time.
Earth’s oceans are – to use the French idiom – pretty much screwed. From time immemorial we have treated the seas like a cesspool, and a garbage dump. We have relied upon our world’s biggest saline solution to soak up the gases and the heat that we pump into the air. We have scraped and scoured the waters, and whatever got caught up as ‘collateral’ mostly died on the deck. “Plenty more fish in the sea”, we said, as we poured more subsidies into fishing fleets.
It is, in the truest sense, a global crisis. The oceans are humanity’s true common wealth, and what happens in Shanghai or Peru, sooner or later sloshes around and washes up on the beaches of Sydney or Perth.
I began my career in fisheries management, but found the misalignment of incentives disheartening. So I felt drawn to aquaculture; to the more hopeful possibilities of giving back to the ocean, rather than just taking. I tinkered with pearl oysters for a while, but they were just trinkets and baubles: we needed to feed humanity: feed them fish that we grew ourselves.
So we adapted our pearl oyster hatchery technologies to marine fish larval culture, and looked for where we might grow out the fingerlings. In Kona, Hawaii, where we were based, the answer seemed self-evident: offshore. Any decent toss from Kona’s lava cliffs in can land a stone in offshore waters, with nothing to the West but water, until you hit Taiwan, and nothing but ocean to the South, until Antarctica.
I began my career in fisheries management, but found the misalignment of incentives disheartening. So I felt drawn to aquaculture—to the more hopeful possibilities of giving back to the ocean, rather than just taking.
Putting fish into the ocean – (though it’s perfectly OK, somehow, to pull aplenty of them out of the ocean? And it’s perfectly pastoral for bovines to belch methane and nitrous oxide?). Humanity seems to have forgotten how – once we were done wiping out buffalo, dodos and passenger pigeons - we turned to farming cows and chickens.
But quality matters. In the ocean, as on land, bad farm management bites you pretty quickly. The modern aquaculture industry is therefore now a well-spring of innovation, borne of the necessity of stewardship. Almost all -legitimate- environmental issues with earlier forms of fish farming are addressable – by sensible siting to minimize water quality and benthic impacts; improved fish nutrition; better understanding of animal health; vaccines that almost totally eliminate antibiotic use; and robust engineering and oceanographic modeling to minimize fish escapes or marine mammal entanglement.
There’s been a lot of discussion recently in Australia about inshore aquaculture, in particular salmon. Offshore aquaculture addressed many of those concerns. Still, permitting offshore, in the public domain, demands patience. In Kona, it took over three years to acquire the first permits for our offshore farm, culturing amberjack (a kingfish cousin now branded as ‘Hawaiian Kanpachi’). There was initially strident opposition from anti-aquaculture activists. But our guiding principle was to grow our fish in their natural habitat. By moving production into deeper water, further offshore, the potential ecosystem impacts could be drastically reduced. This aspiration has been borne out by sophisticated modelling, and extensive environmental monitoring around the kampachi operation in Kona, and an offshore cobia farm in Panama.
One of the five major recommendations from the recent United Nation’s High Level Panel on Global Climate Change and the Oceans was that humankind needs to transition to less impactful marine-based foods.
“So, what do you feed them?” is the perennial objection. Well … what do wild fish eat? Mostly fish, yes, but if we are going to feed the world, we cannot do that on the backs of Peruvian anchoveta. Market forces – and our industry’s intrinsic environmental ethic - have fomented a proliferation of alternative proteins and oils from agriculture and biotech. In trials in Kona, we have been able to completely eliminate all marine-sourced inputs in kampachi diets, by upscaling pet-food grade poultry meal, soy proteins (aka tofu), flax oil, and crucial omega-3 oils from microalgae. We are proving that you don’t need to feed fish to grow fish, any more than you need to feed crushed canaries to your cat.
The imperatives for growing more seafood are increasingly pressing. It’s no longer simply that more humans are more affluent, and want to eat more sushi. It’s not just our doctors telling us that it’s better for heart-health and brain health. It’s that to feed 10 billion people with beef, at the rate that Australians eat hamburger, would leave earth’s soils looking more like Mars, and our atmosphere more like Venus. Land area limitations, freshwater constraints, and – most tellingly – the global climate crisis all demand that we begin to source more of our food from the oceans.
There is now a growing body of science, and an increasing consensus – from both academia and environmental NGOs - that we must move offshore. One of the five major recommendations from the recent United Nation’s High-Level Panel on Global Climate Change and the Oceans was that mankind needs to transition to less impactful marine-based foods. We might also use macroalgae (seaweeds) to sequester carbon dioxide. We need to start to see the oceans as less a victim of the global climate crisis, and more as part of the solution.
A global analysis of the potential yield of fish, bivalves and seaweeds from offshore aquaculture projects harvests could be up to 100 times the current worldwide seafood consumption. 100 times! So the Next Big Thing – we should hope and pray – will be the expansion of aquaculture into the offshore realm. China and Norway have already deployed fish pens looking like offshore oil rigs, that can contain up to 1.5 million salmon. Net pens twice that size are now under construction.
Australia recently waded out in the right direction, through set-up of a Blue Economy Co-operative Research Center, to develop sustainable energy and aquaculture technologies for offshore, in a partnership between government, research institutions and industry. This needs to be matched by policies that support offshore growth – that streamline the permitting process, while still ensuring common-sense levels of environmental oversight. With secure tenure for offshore operations, catalyzing investments should then flow.
Australia’s ocean area – within our Exclusive Economic Zone – is around 130% of the total land area of the continent. But our wide, brown land is no longer simply girt by sea. Our future is out there – beyond the blue horizon.
Originally published in Cosmos
Researchers Successfully Replace Fishmeal, Fish Oil in Farm-Raised Carnivorous Fish
Best performing “fish-free” diet contains an algae oil rich in essential omega-3 fatty acids.
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii—Researchers in Kona, Hawaii, have made a breakthrough in the quest to develop a cost-effective “fish-free” feed for farm-raised Kampachi, or almaco jack, a carnivorous marine fish prized for its rich, buttery flavor.
The ability to replace fishmeal and fish oil currently used in carnivorous marine fish diets will have important implications for ocean sustainability and meeting the growing demand for seafood around the world.
The trial results are detailed in a technical article in the Global Aquaculture Alliance’s Advocate.
“This is the first time – to our knowledge – that fishmeal and fish oil have been totally eliminated from the diet of a marine carnivorous fish, with no deleterious consequences,” said Neil Anthony Sims, CEO of the Hawaii-based mariculture company, Ocean Era, where the trial was conducted. “Kampachi are a fast-growing, sashimi-grade fish, so this a significant breakthrough for the sustainability and scalability of marine fish farming.”
Ocean Era’s “fish-free” diet comprised of an algae oil rich in essential omega-3 fatty acids.
Aquaculture, the world’s fastest growing food sector, consumes more than 70 percent of the world’s fish oil and fishmeal, which are derived from forage fish like sardines, anchovies and menhaden. Roughly 20 percent of the global wild catch, or 18 million tons of fish each year are converted into fishmeal and fish oil for use in animal feed.
During the three-month trial funded by a Saltonstall-Kennedy grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 480 juvenile Kampachi (Seriola rivoliana) were fed one of four diets. Two of the diets contained no fishmeal, and one of these also contained no fish oil. Fishmeal replacement relied primarily on poultry meal, from up-cycled poultry trimmings. Fish oil replacement was achieved using Veramaris® natural marine algal oil, which contains high levels of two critical omega-3 fatty acids, DHA and EPA. A fishmeal and fish oil diet was used as a control, together with an additional commercial control diet. The fish were stocked into sixteen tanks for the comparative grow-out trial.
The fish that were fed the zero fishmeal / zero fish-oil diet performed as well as the fish fed with the fishmeal and fish-oil diet. Performance was evaluated in terms of growth, feed conversion ratio (FCR), fillet yield and survival. FCR is the ratio of the amount of feed it takes to grow one kilogram of fish.
Juvenile Kampachi (Seriola rivoliana) being stocked into tanks for the F3 trial.
The fish fed the zero fishmeal / zero fish-oil diet also had a more desirable taste compared to the fish fed the commercially available control diet.
“The results clearly show that algal oil can replace fish oil 100 percent without any reduction in growth of this marine fish,” said Rick Barrows, a fish nutrition expert with Aquatic Feed Technologies and co-principal investigator of the study.
The feed formulations used in this trial are available as open source formulae through the F3 Feed Innovation Network (F3 FIN) for anyone working to replace wild-caught fish ingredients in animal feed. F3 FIN encourages sustainable innovations in fish-free aquaculture feed ingredients by sharing experimental protocols, testing facilities and ingredient providers.
Algae oils have been shown to contain twice the amount of EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids as fish oil, both of which are important for maintaining fish health and imparting heart and brain health benefits to humans.
“Development of diets that use these upcycled ingredients and microalgal oils is critical to the long-term scalability of marine fish culture, and therefore to our ability to sustainably feed a planet of nine billion people with heart-healthy seafood,” said Sims.
The project, titled “Developing cost-effective fishmeal-free and fish oil-minimized diets for high market value U.S. marine fish aquaculture,” was funded through NOAA’s Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant Program (NA18NMF4270208). The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service provided feed milling support for the trial. Anthropocene Institute and Ka'upulehu fishponds were collaborating partners on the NOAA grant.
The Saltonstall-Kennedy Grant Program funds projects that address the needs of fishing communities, optimize economic benefits by building and maintaining sustainable fisheries, and increase other opportunities to keep working waterfronts viable.
A video about the study can be viewed on YouTube.
Ocean Era, LLC (formerly Kampachi Farms, LLC) is a Kona, Hawaii, based R&D company, dedicated to softening humanity’s footprint on the seas, by expanding production of the ocean’s living resources.
Media Contact:
Annie Reisewitz
annie@marcom.llc
858-228-0526
Hawai’i offshore R&D company re-brands as “Ocean Era, LLC”
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii –The Kona, Hawai’i-based offshore R&D company – formerly known as “Kampachi Farms, LLC” - has announced that the company will now be known as “Ocean Era, LLC”. The re-branding initiative better positions the company to address broader opportunities, and more expansive challenges facing aquaculture, and the planet.
The company membership and management structure will remain unchanged, with a total of 11 employees.
Company co-founder and CEO, Neil Anthony Sims, said that the change was driven by a growing awareness of the global imperative for expansion of offshore aquaculture, and the deeper understanding that the need is not just about one species of fish.
“We love our kampachi. It’s a beautiful fish!” said Sims, “But there are multiple issues that now beset the earth – the global climate crisis; ocean acidification; the limitations of fresh water, fertilizers and land-use; and the need to feed 9 billion people by 2050. The oceans are increasingly seen as not so much a victim of these perils, but as part of the solution.“
Kampachi (Seriola rivoliana) inside an aquapod used for our Velella projects.
Ocean Era continues to work on a number of research and development projects with kampachi (Seriola rivoliana, or Almaco Jack), at its Kona, Hawai’i land-based facility. These projects include a selective breeding program for faster-growing, healthier fish, along with trials to accelerate broodstock maturation to amplify the results of the breeding program. In addition, Ocean Era continues to develop alternative feedstuffs for kampachi and other marine fish.
However, Sims said that the company “is already engaged in several other programs that are pursuing innovations for culture further offshore, and lower down the food chain”.
Nenue (chubs or rudderfish) on ice post feed trial and pre sashimi fest.
These include trials with high-value herbivorous reef-fish, such as the rudderfish, or chubs (Kyphosus vaigiensis).
“This is a fish that eats seaweed,” said Ocean Era’s Research Manager Lisa Vollbrecht. “Herbivorous fish offer the opportunity for aquaculture to not just grow fish, but also grow the feed for the fish, potentially without reliance on wild-caught forage fish or terrestrial proteins and oils. It could be a great opportunity for fish farm expansion, particularly for small-scale farms in less-developed countries.”
Three of the Hawaiian seaweeds being tested in the Blue Fields project: Halymenia hawaiiana, Caulerpa lentillifera, and Gracilaria parvispora.
Ocean Era is also working with support from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA-E) on the “Blue Fields” project, to develop offshore macroalgae culture systems and identify seaweed species for cultivation for food, feed, fertilizers and fuels. A second ARPA-E project, in collaboration with leading Hawaii and mainland research institutes, is striving to adapt the microbiome of the seaweed-eating Kyphosus to improve the biodigestion of seaweeds.
Ocean Era also continues to pursue the Velella Epsilon project, pioneering the permitting for offshore aquaculture in the Gulf of Mexico. Funded largely by the National SeaGrant Program, through University of Florida SeaGrant, this project builds on the prior Velella Beta-test (an unanchored net pen) and the Velella Gamma-test (a single-point mooring net pen operated by remote command-and-control) in Kona. The goal for Velella Epsilon is to obtain the permits for a demonstration-scale single net pen, to be sited around 40 miles offshore of Tampa-Sarasota, on the Florida Gulf Coast.
Dennis Peters, Velella Epsilon Project Manager, said “The intention is to allow the local Florida fishing and boating community to recognize that offshore aquaculture can be a boon. The earlier Velella projects in Kona were phenomenal Fish Aggregating Devices.” The company is presently in the process of obtaining the remaining permits from EPA and US Army Corps of Engineers for this demonstration.
About Ocean Era, LLC:
Ocean Era, LLC (formerly Kampachi Farms, LLC) is a Kona, Hawaii, based R&D company, dedicated to softening humanity’s footprint on the seas, by expanding production of the ocean’s living resources.
Did the sea grapes just move?
A ‘vineyard’ of Caulerpa lentillifera.
In general, seaweed shouldn’t move. Sway? Sure, but crawl? Slither? No, no. Yet there, inside the tank of sea grapes (Caulpera lentillifera), a green, globular, mass was climbing the glass. This looked like sea grapes … but the factor of motility had my biology senses tingling.
We’ve been testing a range of different culture conditions for Caulerpa lentillifera – a green seaweed, the last several months. Caulerpa, or sea grapes is not yet a widely-farmed seaweed, but we believe that it could have great culinary appeal. This “vegan caviar” pops in your mouth, with a burst of ocean flavor. The thallus (or ‘leaf’, if you will) of sea grapes is a cluster of small, green vesicles, called ramuli, that look like tiny grapes.
Our Sacroproteus friend out of camouflage looks more like a pokemon.
What we observed in our tank was akin to watching a bunch of grapes slinking down a trellis. A closer examination revealed a slug-like body beneath the bunch of greenery, and two antennae probing the waters as it slithered forward. Known to science as Sacoproteus smaragdinus, these sea slugs appear similar to nudibranchs, such as the famous “Spanish dancer”, but are only distantly related. The Sacoproteus genus was named after the Greek sea god, Proteus, who could change his shape at will. What an apt name for such a clever algae mimic!
As a gastropod (“stomach-foot” in Latin), our S. smaragdinus literally walks all over its lunch. Most of the species of Sacoproteus seek out just a single Caulerpa species. The slugs sniff out their beloved sea grapes by perching on their sluggy haunches and waving their bodies through the water, hoping a wafting scent of Caulerpa leads them to the vineyard. Each species of slug has a uniquely-shaped tooth adapted to pierce the ‘bubble’ of its preferred species of sea grape. Once they’ve located their lunch/lounge, their special tooth pokes the grape, sucks it dry and stores the green pigments in their bulbous backs as the perfect disguise.
A conspicuous view of the Sacroproteus sp. slug. Photo Credit: Pam Madden
Larval Sacoproteus are planktonic, and drift through the oceans with the currents, until they sense the Caulerpa species of their choice. This can then trigger metamorphosis, and they settle down to a more sedentary life. We suspect that this is probably how this slug “showed up” in our tank; by drifting in through our seawater intake line.
Keeping tabs on our new-found friend is challenging; it’s more like “newly-lost”. Peering through a tank full of green bubble-algae is like one long, losing game of hide and seek, with a slug that Nicholas Paul (an expert on seaweed and algae at Australia’s University of the Sunshine Coast) says, “may be the best example of an animal masquerading as a plant that we have.”
One Caulerpa, two Caulerpa, three Caulerpa—wait… Photo credit: Pam Madden
More: Would you like further reading? See the National Geographic article: “Stunning new sea slug species looks just like seaweed”