Dan Barber falls in love with a farmed fish

This is a talk given by Dan Barber at a TED conference in February. Barber is a chef and scholar who last year received the James Beard award for America's Outstanding Chef. Barber discusses the dilemma chefs face in keeping fish on the menu, and his search for a sustainably-raised fish.

His search leads him to Veta la Palma, a fish farm in southern Spain, and a farmer, Miguel Medialdea. It's an interesting talk, which Barber presents with humor and passion. For more on Veta la Palma, you can also check out this June 2009 article from Time.

UMaine could drop aquaculture degree

The University of Maine is considering cutting its bachelor degree program in aquaculture, according to a press release from the school.

The proposed cut is part of an effort to reduce the school's academic program budget by $12.3 million over three years. Several other degree programs are on the chopping block, including some that seem crucial to Maine's natural resources industries, like wood science and forest operations. The school said it would combine "those programs with other degree options to create efficiencies."

The decision to cut a degree like aquaculture seems odd considering the potential growth the industry could experience in the state and the usefulness a dedicated degree program would have to provide that growing industry with a trained work force.

My TV appearance

This is a bit of old news, but better late than never. On Feb. 7, 2010, I was interviewed on Mainebiz Sunday, a statewide business television show, about my reporting on Maine's aquaculture industry and my trip to offshore aquaculture farms in Panama and Mexico that are using Maine-made technology from Ocean Farm Technologies. Take a look and let me know what you think.

A response from Food & Water Watch

My recent two-part series on offshore aquaculture in Mainebiz (Part 1 and Part 2) received a response from Marianne Cufone, director of Food & Water Watch's fish program. While she agrees the United States needs to reduce its seafood trade deficit, she says expanding ocean fish farming is not the right way to do it. I've copied her letter to the editor below. Let me know what you think.

Ocean farming carries multiple hazards
 
To the editor:

The Mainebiz article published on Feb. 8, “Fishing for a future,” on the subject of aquaculture expansion in the state of Maine includes some good information – however, I believe some common misconceptions are also repeated therein, and Food & Water Watch, a consumer advocacy organization that has been involved with aquaculture issues for many years, would like to address.

The author rightly notes that the United States imports the vast majority of its seafood, creating a multibillion-dollar seafood trade deficit.  However, expanding fish farms in U.S. waters is unlikely to eliminate this deficit. Currently, the U.S. exports about 71% of our domestic fish production – including tilapia, tuna, salmon, crab and some shrimp.  Ironically, these are among the six top seafood imports as well. Essentially, we send abroad the fish we produce here in accord with more stringent labor, safety and health standards to fetch a higher price in international markets where our standards are more highly valued.  U.S. restaurants and markets serve cheaper, often industrially produced, lower-quality, imported fish.

It is not likely that this will change dramatically with the growth of U.S. ocean fish farms. The industry is intended for profit—fish that are farmed in U.S. waters will therefore probably be sent elsewhere for bigger dollar returns—likely leaving the U.S. with just the environmental consequences, which can be severe.

For example, farming finfish may increase fishing pressure on wild fish and disrupt ecosystems.  Most fish that are ocean farmed – like the cod and salmon mentioned in the article – are carnivorous and will eat feed that contains other fish. Food & Water Watch’s calculation of the conversion ratio for Atlantic cod, for example, found that it takes between 2.81 and 3.07 pounds of wild fish to produce just one pound of farmed fish.  That means two to three times the amount of wild fish is being used than is being produced in a farmed fish – and that is both unsustainable and inefficient.

Already, significant amounts of wild prey fish are removed from ocean waters—about 23 million to 33 million tons annually worldwide were used for feed in recent years. Ocean farms in U.S. waters will need fish for use as protein in feed. Efficiency will likely dictate that the fish utilized for feed in domestic ocean farms should come from nearby waters—increasing the take of local wild fish. Often, fish used in feed are the same that wild fish and marine birds eat. This leaves less food in the wild and disrupts a delicate ecosystem balance. Recently a prestigious academic journal, Science,  also suggested that the depletion of smaller fish that larger fish and other wildlife commonly eat (called forage fish), may contribute to food insecurity in certain countries, as these same fish are food for some people.

Also of concern, open water finfish farms can be dirty, pollute the environment and infect wildlife. Because ocean fish farms allow free flow of water between the cages and the ocean, concentrated amounts of fish food, wastes, diseases and any chemicals or antibiotics that may be used in farms can flow straight into ocean waters. A report about one ocean farming facility affiliated with the University of Hawaii said the farm “grossly polluted” the seafloor and “severely depressed” sea life. In Norway and British Columbia, numerous problems have occurred with parasites spreading from caged farmed salmon to wild salmon. If this polluting industry were to expand further in U.S. waters, it would likely affect wild fish populations, thereby hurting fishing communities that are already struggling.

Rather than constantly reciting the refrain that the U.S. needs to reduce our seafood deficit with ocean fish farming, government agencies and fish farming entrepreneurs would do better to consider more progressive solutions to our problems – like keeping more domestic seafood in the U.S., and looking toward pioneering new technologies like land-based recirculating aquaculture systems.

Marianne Cufone
Director
Fish Program, Food & Water Watch

Washington, D.C. 

IBSS discussion: Farmed salmon

Last Monday afternoon, close to 100 people gathered in one of the myriad rooms at the International Boston Seafood Show for a panel discussion on the future of farmed salmon. There were the basic updates, forecasts for the future and, not surprisingly, some tough questions from the audience.

On the panel were Jason Paine, general manager of Multiexport Foods USA; Katherine Bostick, senior program officer at the World Wildlife Fund's Aquaculture Program (she also moderated the panel discussion); Mary Ellen Walling, executive director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association; and Nell Halse, VP of communications for New Brunswick-based Cooke Aquaculture and its operating arm, True North Salmon Co.

The first issue addressed was whether the recent earthquake in Chile had any impact on that country's salmon farming operations. The quake did not affect Multiexport Foods, which owns salmon farms 400 miles north of the quake's epicenter, except for some tense moments the day of the earthquake when communication was spotty, Paine said. The earthquake happened on a Saturday morning, but by Wednesday the company was back to normal, flying farmed salmon out of Santiago. The earthquake had "virtually no impact," he said.

Cooke Aquaculture, which also owns a salmon farm in Chile, was not severely impacted by the quake, besides some of the expected disruptions to transportation and logistics, Halse said.

The conversation then shifted to an overall assessment of Chile's salmon farming industry. The Infectious Salmon Anemia outbreak in that country has been "nothing short of catastrophe," Paine said. He said this year will be the most difficult, but his future outlook is positive. There's been no more cases of ISA reported in the past year and the number of smolts being put in the water is on the way up. However, it's cost the industry there billions of dollars. "It's been a very expensive lesson to learn," he said.

Halse said Cooke's Chile operation is expecting "significant recovery." She pointed out that ISA is very difficult to eradicate, but can be addressed through better management. Given the fact that ISA first appeared in New Brunswick waters -- Cooke's native territory -- in 1996, and did significant damage to the salmon farms there and in Down East Maine, the company has dealt with this problem before. Halse said ISA has not been a serious problem in New Brunswick and Maine since then because of the measures undertaken to keep it under control. Cooke Aquaculture operates on a three-bay management system. At any given time, one bay is reserved for new smolts, another for market-size fish, while another lies fallow for a minimum of four months. The system is very similar to that used by terrestrial farms.

Researchers create GM trout with "six-pack abs"

In my research and writing, I have not broached the subject of using genetically modified fish in farms, so I don't feel prepared to write about the subject. But I couldn't help posting this video about the GM fish with "six-pack abs" developed at the University of Rhode Island, and its apparent benefits to fish farming.

Researchers at URI have developed rainbow trout with 15% to 20% more muscle mass than normal trout, which if put on a global scale could have a significant impact in the amount of flesh harvested. According to URI, fish farms in the United States and Europe raise roughly 500,000 metric tons of rainbow trout each year. In the United States, those farms are concentrated in Idaho, New York, Pennsylvania and California and produce roughly $80 million worth of trout annually. By my calculations, GM trout would boost the harvest to as much as 600,000 metric tons without increasing the number of fish or the amount of feed. Of course, there's plenty of debate to be had about the use of genetically modified livestock to feed people, but in a purely quantifiable sense, the idea would seem to be a boon for fish farmers.

"If we were able to get these fish to the point where they would be accepted and could be grown, it has tremendous implications in increasing the mass of fish and increasing the profitability of fish culture," says Terry Bradley, the URI professor of fisheries and aquaculture that is leading the project.

We'd also have to get to a point where we could eat such ugly suckers.

Source: The University of Rhode Island

Cooke Aquaculture expands with acquisition

One piece of news in the aquaculture industry that emerged this weekend is that New Brunswick-based Cooke Aquaculture has signed a letter of intent to purchase Ocean to Ocean, a Montreal-based frozen seafood importer, distributor and marketer, and its U.S. subsidiary Ocean King, which operates a processing plant in Philadelphia.

The acquisition continues Cooke Aquaculture's focus on vertical integration. The company posts more than $450 million in annual sales and controls every link in its seafood distribution chain - "from egg to plate," as Cooke's press release puts it.

The deal is expected to close at the end of March. "This purchase will enable us to strengthen our position with North American retailers in the value-added and frozen seafood category," says CEO Glenn Cooke.

The IBSS

After a wet trip to the convention center, I was met this morning with a throng of thousands. The International Boston Seafood Show attracts more than 17,000 buyers and sellers from 90 countries. 

Later this afternoon, there's a seminar on the future of farmed salmon. I'll post thoughts that emerge from that discussion.

Blogging from the Int'l Boston Seafood Show

Took a bus this morning to Boston for the International Boston Seafood Show. I'll be attending a few interesting seminars on the seafood business, including one on private equity in the seafood business and another on the future of farmed salmon.

New fish-counting, food-sensing, growth-measuring, water-monitoring laser technology offers fish farmers a boost

A pair of young Maine entrepreneurs have developed laser technology they say will help fish farmers better manage their livestock, according to Mainebiz.

AXAT Inc. (the name stands for algorithm experts for advanced technology) is close to commercializing laser sensors that fish farmers would set up above their open ocean fish cages or tanks and monitor the water below. The lasers are able to count the fish, and measure things such as their growth rate, pigmentation, the concentration of food in the water, and the water quality.

The purpose of this new technology is to help new fish farmers break into the business, Cody Andrews, the company's 23-year-old co-owner, tells Mainebiz. "What the United States is lacking is a really robust aquaculture industry," he tells the newspaper. "If we could make the whole system easier and we could make it more precise, we could limit how much expertise you need. You don't need to have a PhD to raise fish."

Go to the original article from Mainebiz >>