Deadline Met

Just finished last brief for next issue of Aquaculture North America on domestic farmed catfish prices showing slight signs of recovery.

The short snippet acts as a good side-bar for my larger story on the toughest winter in a longtime for southern catfish farmers, who face frozen ponds and fluctuating extreme temperatures and how that can lead to "winter kill."

This issue hits subscriber mailboxes March 1st, and features other stories I penned on Texas shrimp farmers diversifying into fish species like red drum, cobia, catfish, and even striped bass, in order to grow their market share beyond their traditional shrimp product. Also, I looked into Hawaiian-based Kona Blue Water Farms partnership with Kaeole Point Fish, Inc. to take over Kona's offshore operations off the Big Island. Finally, I followed up my earlier story on HR 4363, The Sustainable Offshore Aquaculture Act of 2009, with a breakdown of the bill and industry reaction.

For these stories and more, turn to Aquaculture North America, "a great trade mag for a great continent."

Please fee free to send story ideas or comment on existing stories in the paper. Always willing to discuss the industry with like-minded folks.

E.L.

PDF version of debut issue of ANA

Check out the premier issue of Aquaculture North America. Martha's Vineyard pilot blue mussel farm on the front page.

New Publication Covering North American Aquaculture

Aquaculture North America has launched. I've got five stories in this issue, covering everything from the current debate over how to manage and regulate offshore aquaculture in U.S. national waters, to a blue mussel pilot program in Massachusetts, to the decision by the U.S. FDA not to ban raw oysters farmed in the Gulf of Mexico.

The new Bi-monthly trade publication is devoted to the growth of a strong, economically viable and environmentally conscious cold water aquaculture industry in North America. It covers the latest news in finfish and shellfish culture in Canada and U.S.publication.

Check here for background on some of the articles I write for the publication and to keep us informed about any news items you think should get coverage.

E.L.

A New Magazine for a New Time

As the North American aquaculture industry grows into its second generation of productivity and development a new magazine American Aquaculture, launching in January, looks to cover the ins and outs of the sector from hatchery to farm to wholesaler.

As a writer for the new publication, I am responsible for covering most of the US market. The magazine is the latest aquaculture related publication from the Canada-based folks who put out Hatchery International and Northern Aquaculture magazines.

For the first issue, I will be writing stories on the new offshore marine aquaculture policy development process now happening at NOAA; the use of ATVs and UTVs on aquaculture farms in the US; and something on a Texas shrimp farms.

Stay-tuned here for the latest on the publication and how you can subscribe.

ATV Use by Aquaculture professionals

Just starting my reporting on first assignment for Hatchery International. ATV use on aquaculture sites. If any of you have any anecdotes and use ATVs at your location please feel free to comment. I may use it in the story or not. But I would love to get a feel for what is going on out there.

Cape Cod Shellfishermen find success and hurtles

No one claims aquaculture is the silver bullet to save struggling fishermen under the pressure of a heavy regulated fishing industry, but farming the sea does offer an alternative way to make a living on the water. 

But as shown in this Provincetown Banner article, the growing shellfish aquaculture industry is not without it's own set of challenges. 

Aquaculture, though full of promise, has its own headaches as a recent forum at Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies made clear. But the glint of plump shellfish, easy harvest, steady prices and clean waters keeps the hopeful hoping...

Obama Administration Shifts Aquaculture Strategy

As first blogged by our friends at acuaculturetoday, Commerce secretary Gary Locke last week said the administration will develop federal aquaculture regulations, including a system that could permit offshore fish farming in the ocean waters for the first time.

As part of the secretary's briefing before a senate committee hearing in Washington D.C., Locke further detailed a decision to change a Bush administration proposal that would have expedited a permitting system for offshore aquaculture under the Minerals Management Service. He said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will oversee the preparation of the Obama administration's fish-farming guidelines, according to aquaculturetoday's blog post.

I was waiting to hear what the Obama administration would be doing with aquaculture policy. As the UN and other international organizations have seen the light in recent months and accepted the fact the industry is a more-or-less a good thing for consumers and, if done correctly and sustainably, for the oceans and those individuals, communities that rely on them.

Stay tuned for further info on aquaculture policy out of the Obama White House. 

MA-based Australis Aquaculture Making Waves

The Berkshires have a little bit of the outback going on. For several years a favorite south east Asian fish has been farmed and raised in a closed hatchery system at Australis Aquaculture, a subsidiary of WM Capital of Huston, TX. 

WM Capital bought the hatchery and farming operations in Massachusetts and Vietnam last month from Australis Aquaculture in Australia. 

Josh Goldman, managing director for Australis, told SeaFood Business in March that the transaction provides the necessary capital to increase the fish's presence in retail markets while also moving the investor base of the company, which will still operate with the Australis name. 

"We're really focused on growing the barramundi business, both by increasing supply in Vietnam and doing what we do in the United States," said Goldman. "We're building a national presence for the ‘Better Fish' brand." Australis barramundi fillets are now available frozen in stand-up retail bags.

I will be meeting with Goldman and others at the Turners Falls-based US headquarters to interview him and his colleagues for Hatchery International about their operations in the US and their efforts to sustainably farm the mid-sized white fish.

Though, the company has made a concerted effort to farm their fish in a completely closed system here in America, their Vietnam raised fish are reportedly being raised in open ocean cages.

At first, Australis executives played coy when I first approached them about doing a story on their hatchery in Turners Falls, claiming they wanted to protect their technology and trade secrets from competitors. I kept on them. 

I told them that I had learned over the years I worked at CNET Networks covering the technology sector that stories can be written effectively about businesses without giving away their golden egg. It worked and on Friday Goldman called me up and said my persistence had paid off.

With that, I plan to go out next week and try and cover their unique hatchery system without giving away too much. I’ll let you know how it goes.

 

Aquaculture as an education tool for success

Over the past several weeks I've come across a few high school programs in the area that incorporate aquaculture into their curriculum, combining biology, science and sustainable oceans policy studies.

In a recent op-ed in the Gloucester Times in Massachusetts, the editors praised Gloucester High School students and faculty working on a joint project with the Salem State College science department to grow clams and hatchery maintenance. The effort is “effectively bridging the gap between theory and the real-world economy,” the op-ed went on to say.

Here on Martha’s Vineyard, I’ve heard of talk of students earning how to grow tilapia, though I haven’t independently confirmed this yet.

I soon will be pitching a story to Hatchery International taking a look at the various high school and two year community colleges in New England offering studies in aquaculture.

If you have any high schools in your area that fits this angle, please feel free to leave a note and I will try and include them in the story.

MBL Conference Call

This afternoon, took a conference call with aquaculture go-to guys Scott Lindell and Bill Mebane at Marine Biology Laboratories. 

I was interested in doing a piece for Hatchery International on their Sustainable Aquaculture Initiative that brings methods and technologies for fish farming developed in the Woods Hole labs to fish farmers down in Haiti. Found out most of the work now is being done down on the island.

Marine Resources Manager and Director of the Scientific Aquaculture Program at MBL, Lindell said lack of foundation funds during the current economic downturn has taken a hit on the project as well.

“We’re at a stasis point right now,” said Lindell. “There is a lack of funding as part of the overall economy.”

Most of their current work is being done in the shellfish aquaculture sector, including disease resistance research and the black mussel farming project on Martha’s Vineyard.

I did get a heads up on some upcoming fin-fish stuff coming up in the summer that I pitched to the editors at the mag.

May be an interesting story to see what other impacts the down economy has had on the industry. Stay tuned.

 

Connecting Aquaculture and Wind Farms?

In a recent email discussion with Cliff Goudey, Director Offshore Aquaculture Engineering Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), I was surprised to find out that he leads an effort to develop aquaculture technology that would allow for open ocean farming in conjunction with ongoing renewable energy initiatives.

"I am also leading an effort aimed at developing fish and shellfish culturing technologies that can operate synergistically with offshore renewable energy projects (wind & wave)," he wrote.

This reminded me of an earlier blog post in 2005 when I wrote about similar efforts to enable aquaculture projects using existing oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Goudey, was quick to correct this comparison.

"The motivations down there are somewhat different and partly driven by O&G wanting to avoid decommissioning costs.  Furthermore, site selection was purely based on O&G resources, not environmental criteria or suitability for fish," Goudey wrote.

I plan to reach out to Cape Wind proponents who plan to build a wind farm in Nantucket Sound and find out if any similar proposals have come out of the recent final public comment part of the project. 

Stay tuned.

Salmon Aquaculture Discussion in Boston

In brief, the WWF's self described "Salmon Aquaculture Dialogue" closed session in Boston over the weekend.

The participants, made up of producers, nongovernmental organizations and other stakeholders, were asked to assess the environmental impact of diseases and parasites and pull together current knowledge on preventing and mitigating these effects on farms and on the environment.

To learn more about each impact related to salmon farming, the Steering Committee for the World Wildlife Fund-initiated Dialogue created technical working groups (TWGs) that drafted a series of “State of Information Reports.” Each report assesses existing research related to an impact, identifies gaps or areas of disagreement in the research and suggests a process for addressing the gaps.

To view the full report, go to http://wwf.worldwildlife.org/site/PageNavigator/SalmonSOIForm.

Reports have been completed for chemical inputs, nutrient loading/carrying capacity, feed, escapes and benthic impacts/sitting.

 

Maine town opens aquaculture fish plant

A new lease on life for working waterfront towns?

Downeast Maine community Machiasport recently celebrated a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new Cooke Aquaculture salmon fish processing plant, according to a company press release posted on the online seafood industry site FIS.com.

The plant originally closed its doors in 2004 when the local decline in farmed salmon caused a drop in production. In 2006, the Canadian-based firm Cooke Aquaculture purchased two multi-national aquaculture firms and promised to work with the Maine state government to collaborate and maintain a viable aquaculture industry in the area. With the $6 million dollar restructuring of the plant, the family-run firm fulfilled that commitment, according to the announcement.

Maine governor John Baldacci praised the fish processing plant as a good example of private, state and local collaborative achievement.

New England-FMC Supports Flounder Aquaculture

The New England Fisheries Management Council recently unofficially backed a plan in New York for farm-raising and releasing flounder into the wild.  The proposal is the brainchild of Capt. Norman Edwards Jr., a commercial fisherman and East Hampton, NY, town trustee.

According to recent press reports, Edwards’ plan got its biggest boost when it got overwhelming official approval from  NY’s Marine Resources Advisory Council. Regardless of these gains, however, Edwards has gotten the cold shoulder from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEC).

Despite that hurtle, Edwards plan seems to be catching steam and could act as a model for similar programs to supplement wild ground-fish stocks throughout New England.

Winter flounder - sold in markets as flounder or lemon sole - went into serious decline in North East waters in the 1980s, taking with it a major commercial and recreational fishery. Despite stringent fishing regulations, it's estimated that it could take more than a decade for winter flounder to regain its once-robust place in New England coastal waters.

Winter flounder first came into the national aquaculture spotlight in 2007 when researchers at the University of new Hampshire’s Atlantic Marine Aquaculture Center found that winter flounder is a good candidate for stock enhancement, in which juvenile fish hatched from wild brood stock are raised in captivity and released into the wild.

"We're studying winter flounder because we think they are an excellent local candidate for stock enhancement," said UNH researcher Elizabeth Fairchild, in a press announcement in 2007. "We know how to raise them, and we've learned how to release them in a way that maximizes their survival."

Raising the juvenile flounder is, in many ways, the easy part, according to UNH researchers. 

The process begins in what Fairchild calls the "honeymoon tank" in UNH's Coastal Marine Laboratory in New Castle, NH. Commercial fishermen provide the wild brood stock; Fairchild and colleagues expertly gauge their readiness for releasing sperm and eggs then give the males and females their privacy: "We let the fish spawn on their own," she said, noting that stock enhancement is most effective when the raised fish are as similar as possible to the wild fish they'll ultimately breed with.

The work gets tricky - and makes for fascinating research -- when the juveniles reach the size of a potato chip and are ready to join their wild brethren in the shallow coastal waters where winter flounder naturally spawn. "Hatchery-bred fish are different than wild fish," says Fairchild. They haven't been exposed to predators, for instance; nor have they had to forage for food. "For stock enhancement to work, the raised fish must be as fit as the wild fish." Much of her research turns on the challenge of making the cultured fish more wild.

Studies continue on how to best make sure farm-raised flounder can make it in the wild. For instance, Fairchild and other researchers have tested the effectiveness of acclimatization cages, marine halfway houses that give hatchery-raised fish a protected introduction to the wild blue sea, according to UNH reports.

Edwards’ plan in NY and any others in New England will depend heavily on UNH’s continued research.  New England Aquafarmer will continue to cover and keep you posted as news develops.

 

Going to Woods Hole to reseacrh MBL

On a quick day trip to Falmouth for some shopping needs, I decided to include a stop off to check out the Marine Biological Labs in Woods Hole. My first story for Hatchery International is going to be on the ongoing Sustainable Aquaculture Initiative (SAI) run out of the institution. 

SAI looks to bring affordable, low-scale aquaculture technology and practices to 3rd world nations where people struggle from malnutrition. 

For the mag, I'll have to focus on the hatchery side of things which takes place in Woods Hole. But the global angle of the initiative is what interests me and highlights the great impact aquaculture can have beyond just the balanced replacement of over-fished wild fisheries. Aquaculture can also play a role in meeting the nutritional needs of impoverished people around the world.

Here on the blog, I will illuminate more on how this takes place--from the hatcheries at MBL to the sustainable fish farms in Haiti and Sub-Saharan Africa, where the pilot program has begun taking form.

The Beginning is Now

Just launched and linked this blog to a sister page on Facebook. New England Aquafarmer now has a Facebook presence and is gathering steam as aquaculture professionals from as far away as Singapore have befriended the page. 

This is the first step in building what has been a long held dream of mine to build an online resource for the growing aquaculture industry in New England and beyond. 

What I will try to do is build on my research and writing I do for Hatchery International and Northern Aquaculture on the regional industry as well as keep on top of national and global industry news and discuss with whoever wants to discuss. 

This is a start. I know it will not be perfect. But I am very excited to at least be putting into action a dream I have had since my young reporter days right out of BU Journalism School. 

In the future we hope to connect blogs, podcasts, and other Facebook members with New England Aquaculture interests together for online discussion, knowledge sharing and just community building. 

Stay tuned. Thanks for checking us out. 

First pitches approved

My dream of being an esteemed media expert on the New England Aquaculture industry just got that much closer as many of my first pitches have been approved by Peter Chettleburgh, editor and publisher of Hatchery International and Northern Aquaculture magazines. 

The Victoria, Canada-based media company --Capamara Communications--that publishes the magazines has tasked me with covering the New England beat for their international audience. Without giving away to much, I will first cover one of the oldest trout hatcheries in the country. Located in historic Plymouth, MA a 140-year old trout hatchery has been hatching, growing, and farming brown and rainbow trout for almost two centuries. the mag wants a hatchery profile.

I am also going to do a feature on a a sustainable aquaculture project out of the Marine Biology Laboratory in Woods Hole.

These will, hopefully, be the first of many articles I write on a growing regional, national and international industry that looks to provide nutrient-rich and healthy seafood to the masses from safe and sustainable farmed resources. 

 

I'm back...

I have been off and away for a while, writing for other publications that have nothing to do with the aquaculture industry. That said, I'm now getting ready to pitch some new story ideas to a new gig at Hatchery International and Northern Aquaculture magazines.

After emailing with editor Peter Chettleburgh a couple of weeks ago he tasked me with research the New England aquaculture industry to start writing stories for them down here. Did I say they are located in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada? They cover the international aquaculture industry and wanted a writer in this area of the US Eastern Seaboard. I told him I would take it from New Engalnd and take it from there. 

Very excited. I hope this will open up other opportunities in this area and also provide fodder for content for this blog. Keep checking for regular updates on my situation as well as more on our growing aquaculture industry here in Massachusetts and beyond.

Stay tuned.

Maine lobstermen and aquaculture farm clash

A Casco Bay mussel farmer wants to expand to a new location near Hope Island, raising concerns by Chebeague Island fishermen that they'll be forced out of prime lobster grounds.

this marks the latest local skirmish in the ongoing battle between existing fishermen and the growing aquaculture industry. The battle has been waging throughout New England, which has long had a historical fishing industry and has, over recent years, seen an increase in new aquaculture business. What has to be found is a balance between the two industries. Federal, state, and local governments have to establish guidelines for better relations between the two industries in order for the two to coexist. We will keep an eye on this latest skirmish in Maine and keep are readers posted.

e.l.

Bush Administration pushes offshore aquaculture

This week, the Bush administration sent its national offshore aquaculture legislation to Capitol Hill for Congressional action. The President pledged to propose this bill as part of his U.S. Ocean Action Plan, which outlines near-term and longer-term actions to protect the oceans and marine resources.

The bill grants the Secretary of Commerce authority to issue permits for marine aquaculture operations in federal waters, which cover about 3.4 million square miles from three to 200 miles off the coasts of the United States.

This makes a lot of sense. Such an effort could free up the industry from local restrictive red-tape, while giving more control to the federal government. Before the bill should be made into law though, further efforts need to be made to develop federal standards and guidelines for the industry. This would help with legal confusion and provide a knowledge base for safe and financially viable aquaculture business.

e.l.