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BY MARYAM FARAG
Fighting the good fight
The new year has come to a start, still bringing some of the challenges the industry has faced in the last year.
With almost half of the world’s consumption of seafood coming from farms, aquaculture is playing an increasingly important role in meeting the challenge of global food security. This is why the aquaculture industry needs to keep fighting the battles that lie ahead in the new year.
Last issue, we focused on the ongoing challenges with salmon farms in British Columbia, but we seem to see a pattern with what is happening in Washington State.
In response to the Nov. 14 announcement that the State of Washington’s Department of Natural Resources will not renew the leases for Cooke Aquaculture Pacific’s steelhead farms in Washington waters, three U.S. trade groups: Northwest Aquaculture Alliance, National Fisheries Institute, and the National Aquaculture Association have called for an independent review of DNR’s decision.
In this issue, Jeanne Mcknight, executive director of the Northwest Aquaculture Alliance,
gives us a detailed picture of what went down since the day of the announcement.
And of course, our ongoing challenge remains to be climate change. In the cover story, we focus on climate change and the effects it has on warmwater species, specifically catfish. Catfish seems to be making a comeback, but “Will climate change reverse that trend?” writes Lynn Fantom.
Speaking of climate, earlier this year, Hurricane Ian ravaged areas of South America, the Caribbean and the southern United States. Florida was hit particularly hard. In this issue, Matt Jones writes about “lessons that the wider aquaculture industry could learn from operations such as Sun Shrimp, the largest fresh shrimp farm in the country.”
I realize our theme this issue is mainly about challenges, but the goal is to continue sharing ideas and solutions to ongoing industry problems, and to keep fighting the good fight. If you want to be part of the change, feel free to share your ideas at mfarag@ annexbusinessmedia.com
From all of us at Aquaculture North America, happy new year!
Farm-raised salmon dominates global sustainability rankings
The independent Coller FAIRR Protein Producer Index has recognized farmed salmon producers as “the most sustainable animal protein producers in the world.”
The Coller FAIRR Index is an assessment of publicly-traded animal protein producers on critical environmental, social and governance issues. Among the salmon companies listed, two companies, Grieg Seafood and Mowi, have operations in Canada. Canada’s two other major salmon producers, Cermaq and Cooke Aquaculture, are privately-held companies and not included in this Index, but are globally recognized in other sustainability indices.
“Canadians should celebrate the global-leading sustainability performance of this innovative food producing sector,” said Timothy Kennedy, President & CEO of the Canadian Aquaculture Industry Alliance. “In addition to playing a leadership role in environmental stewardship, Canadian salmon farmers are producing a healthy and secure food, creating year-round jobs, and they are opening new economic opportunities for rural, coastal and Indigenous communities.”
According to Coller FAIRR, salmon farming is a blue economic opportunity for Canada at a time when farm-raised seafood is an increasingly important food source globally. The United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicts that seafood farming globally will produce 63 per cent of all seafood by 2030. “Seafood farming is already the source of over half of all global seafood production.”
“There is such incredible opportunity for this young and dynamic sector in Canada,” said Kennedy. “Salmon farming is an increasingly precise practice which incorporates traditional animal husbandry with high tech solutions. There has been consistent improvement year to year through investment in new technology and innovation. We’re producing healthy Canadian-grown protein while protecting the environment and helping to combat climate change.”
PHOTO: MOWI CANADA WEST
Cooke Inc. acquires Tassal Group Ltd.
Cooke Inc., parent company of Cooke Aquaculture Inc. of New Brunswick, Canada, has acquired Tassal Group Limited of Australia, under which Cooke has acquired all outstanding shares of Tassal.
This follows a Tassal shareholder vote held on Nov. 3, with voting majorities that overwhelmingly approved the scheme. Final approval of the scheme was ordered by the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
Tassal is a vertically integrated seafood producer and Blue AgTech business. Its footprint spans from Southern Tasmania to the North of Queensland. Tassal annually harvests 40,000 tonnes of Atlantic salmon in five marine farming zones supported by four land-based freshwater hatcheries and four processing facilities. The company also farms 5,500 tonnes of Australian Black Tiger Prawns from two hatcheries, three pond farms and processing facilities.
“We are thrilled to be joining the Tasmanian aquaculture industry and look forward to welcoming Tassal’s 1,700 employees to the Cooke family of companies,” said Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Inc.
“Over the last few months, myself and members of our global management team have had the opportunity to visit Tassal’s operations and have been so impressed by the team’s dedication to what they do and their communities. We’re looking forward to working with Tassal’s employees and customers to ensure that we continue to produce high quality, sustainable seafood for the Australian market and beyond.”
According the press release, Cooke’s core purpose is to “cultivate the ocean with care, nourish the world, provide for our families, and build stronger communities.” Cooke believes Tassal will be a major contributor in furthering its commitment to the continuous improvement of animal husbandry, biosecurity, environmental management, and sustainable farming practices.
“Producing healthy and nutritious seafood comes with great
responsibility. Whether we are farming prawns on land or salmon in the sea, our commitment is to be a responsible business respecting our people, the environment and communities we operate within as we deliver our vision of sustainably feeding tomorrow which aligns perfectly with Cooke’s core purpose,” said Mark Ryan, CEO of Tassal.
“We’re looking forward to becoming part of the Cooke family of companies and sharing the best of what our industry has to offer.”
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Mark Ryan CEO of Tassal and Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Inc.
Washington State got it wrong
BY JEANNE MCKNIGHT, NORTHWEST AQUACULTURE ALLIANCE
W“hat just happened?”
That’s the question that the seafood community was asking this past Nov. 18, when the Washington State Commissioner of Public Lands, Hilary Franz, convened an audience of ardent supporters from the Wild Fish Conservancy (WFC) and the media, declaring triumphantly that, “Washington’s public aquatic lands will no longer be home to commercial finfish aquaculture.”
Giving Cooke Aquaculture Pacific just under a month to harvest half a million steelhead and dismantle its net pens from Hope Island and Rich Passage, not to mention slaughtering 332,000 juvenile fish, the commissioner declared that she was banning commercial net pen aquaculture in stateowned aquatic lands. Forever.
The Northwest Aquaculture Alliance immediately challenged Commissioner Franz and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to produce the science upon which she made this unilateral decision to wipe out the last remaining commercial marine fish
farms in a state well-suited for marine aquaculture. Our message to the commissioner: “You got it wrong!”
On Dec. 7, an ad hoc coalition of distinguished fisheries scientists and national and state-run trade associations presented a demand letter to Commissioner Franz and other state officials, seeking an independent review of the science behind the net pen decision.
We wonder if Commissioner Franz is aware of the fact that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAAA), in releasing its Five-Year Strategic Plan for Aquaculture, has declared that “Marine aquaculture builds seafood supply, supports commercial fisheries, restores habitat and atrisk species, and maintains economic activity in every coastal state.”
We question the motives of an agency head who chooses to ignore the recommendation of a delegation of Washington legislators, who just two weeks prior the announcement of the lease cancellations for Cooke’s two remaining steelhead farms, sent Commissioner
Franz a letter urging her to renew the net pen leases, as well as to approve a pending lease application for Salish Fish, a joint venture between Cooke and the Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe. Salish Fish announced plans to develop a steelhead farm off Port Angeles to replace one of the former Cooke operations.
In the letter, the lawmakers discuss their findings from a late summer visit to Cooke Aquaculture Pacific’s Hope Island site, stating that they view net pen aquaculture as “a modern and sustainable industry, utilizing state-of-the-art technology, which allows for the comprehensive monitoring of each farm’s environmental conditions.”
“We understand and appreciate the difficult challenges and management decisions that come with your job, but you should be confident in that your decision to extend these aquatic leases is backed by extensive scientific review and is supported by agencies and experts at the state and federal level,” the legislators concluded.
But science matters little when politics are involved.While some speculate that Commissioner Franz has her sights set on the Governor’s mansion in 2024, more than a few political observers have suggested that Franz’s decision had less to do with science and more to do with the science fiction that the litigation-loving WFC uses to fundraise.
For those not familiar, the WFC is a radical environmental activist organization known less for its salmon conservation efforts and more for suing the likes of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, the National Marine Fisheries Service, the Alaska Trollers Association, and Cooke Aquaculture—to name just a few of its popular targets.
While only Commissioner Franz and her close advisors know what prompted her to pull the plug on one of the most climate-friendly, efficient means of growing nutritious food, it appears she has disregarded Washington’s 2018 law allowing for the farming of native species.
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As Cooke wrote in a recent statement about the DNR decision, “Washington State has been a leader in developing and implementing permit requirements for fish farms. Over the past five years, Cooke has worked cooperatively with regulators, including DNR, to implement independent engineering review of its facilities, enhanced monitoring of water and sediment quality, and increased transparency regarding its operations. All these requirements that have been implemented at Cooke’s farms in Washington show the lack of impact to the environment of its operations.”
Not surprisingly, Cooke was challenged almost every step of the way as it made the transition to farming steelhead trout.
After the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) granted the species-switch permit to Cooke Aquaculture Pacific, a group of activist organizations branding themselves as environmentalists challenged that approval in court.
However, in a stunning victory for Cooke— and for all marine net pen aquaculture in Washington—in January 2022, a landmark Washington State Supreme Court ruling unanimously rejected the activists’ arguments and upheld the permit WDFW granted to Cooke Aquaculture
Pacific for the farming of Pacific Steelhead trout.
Notably, the Court, using best available science, found that farming of steelhead would not have probable, significant adverse impacts on the environment. Furthermore, the Court upheld WDFW’s years of careful analysis and permit conditions, noting that the agency’s granting of the permit would be protective of the environment.
Yet another significant victory came in the form of a 210-page biological opinion conducted on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding marine finfish aquaculture in Puget Sound, in which NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service found little to no negative impact on native species such as endangered salmon, Orcas, or their habitat.
Despite these key findings, and indeed, despite some 40 years of peer-reviewed science showing no significant environmental damage caused by commercial marine net pens, the DNR head’s action was made without any analysis or rationale other than that provided within the agency news release. Instead, the DNR Order claims that the removal of Cooke Aquaculture Pacific’s two fish farms “will save wild fish and natural habitat.” Given the fact that the two sites DNR plans to close occupy
just .0004% of the state’s public aquatic lands, this claim makes no sense.
To blame marine net pens as the “cause” of the decline in wild salmon stocks shows a lack of understanding of the factors contributing to wild salmon population decline: habitat loss, bycatch, municipalities’ releasing untreated pollutants and contaminants into the water, and other factors.
In a final but tragic irony, DNR’s own staff has repeatedly commended Cooke, in both internal and external correspondence, for the strides it had taken in working with DNR, the Washington Department of Ecology and WDFW.
As Cooke has stated, “The actions by DNR’s leadership are perplexing at best, and punitive at worst. As a Canadian family company investing significantly in Washington State and creating local jobs, this is very disheartening. As a steward of Washington’s lands, DNR is sending a very clear message to others: ‘Do not come to Washington, do not invest here.’”
Jeanne McKnight has worked in seafood industry advocacy for more than 30 years. She played a key role in helping rebrand the Washington Fish Growers, shaping a new aquaculture advocacy organization, the Northwest Aquaculture Alliance. She enjoys farmed and wild seafood and believes it is important to “Eat Seafood Twice a Week”.
Sun Shrimp’s hurricane recovery
Florida farm’s resiliency could have lessons for other farms BY MATT JONES
Earlier this year, Hurricane Ian ravaged areas of South America, the Caribbean and the southern United States. Florida was hit particularly hard, where Ian was the deadliest hurricane to hit the
state in almost 100 years. And while climate experts agree that we are likely to see more frequent, and more intense tropical storms in the coming years, hurricanes are a fact of life in Florida.
As such, there may be lessons that the wider aquaculture industry could learn from operations such as Sun Shrimp, the largest fresh shrimp farm in the country. While Sun Shrimp was rocked by Ian, owner Robin Pearl credits his company’s existing hurricane preparations with how quickly their recovery began.
“There’s always storms in Florida,” said Pearl. “When we built the farm, we knew that it’s not a matter of if, it’s only a matter of when we’re going to get hit. So, we have protocols in place to mitigate the effects of the hurricane. To be honest, I think we fared extremely well compared to the damage all around us – there’s a lot of communities that have been devastated and a lot of people have lost their lives and a lot of people got hurt. It’s a testament to our planning.”
Damage assessments and recovery
The road and bridge leading to Pine Island, where Sun Shrimp is located, had been completely washed away, so Pearl had to hitch a ride to the island on a boat and then hiked to the farm. In comparison to the scenes of devastation that he passed along his way, Pearl was surprised at how minimal the damage was on site.
PHOTO: ROBIN PEARL
A few tanks had some problems and some of the metal structure of the greenhouse was damaged – between material costs and labour, Pearl estimates the total cost of the damage at between $800,000 and $900,000. When Pearl spoke with Aquaculture North America in mid-November, he estimated that Sun Shrimp would be largely back to normal operations by the end of the month.
The shrimp themselves were largely safe, however, surviving the initial onslaught of the storm was only the first step. Pearl knew there was very little chance that road access to the farm would be restored in a timely fashion, but they only had enough propane on site to power the generators for three or four days.
“I made the executive decision at that point to turn off generators for our food shrimp to preserve propane so we could keep our more important stocks alive. We have a lot of genetics, we have a lot of broodstock – there’s a big broodstock season coming up. So, we decided to keep those going and by doing that we were able to keep the farm running off this emergency power for a good 10 to 12 days.”
And without any ice or enough employees on hand, there was no way of processing the food shrimp either. Pearl estimates they lost
Without any ice or enough employees on hand, there was no way of processing the food shrimp either. Pearl estimates they lost 40,000 or 50,000 lbs. of food shrimp, which were buried on site. But the more important stocks were saved.
40,000 or 50,000 lbs. of food shrimp, which were buried on site. But the more important stocks were saved.
Preperations
Ironically for an operation only three hours from Disney World, Pearl says one of Sun Shrimp’s keys when building farm infrastructure is “not to do Mickey Mouse stuff.”
Every building on site was built rock solid with extra concrete columns and pillars and hurricane-rated glass on every door and window.
All the farm’s generators were installed on pedestals about three feet off the ground to avoid flooding impacts. And the shrimp on site are kept in special ‘gullwing’ tanks, prototypes the company designed which are intended to
be hurricane proof. As for the greenhouse, the protocol is that the plastic roof is to be removed to avoid the wind catching it.
“It’s so much work to remove the roof and then to redeploy it, you really don’t want to do it unless you feel like this thing is really coming. Earlier in the week, it looked like we were going to get lucky and that the storm was going to go more to the panhandle. But during the weekend it started veering back further south so at that point we made the decision, ‘tomorrow morning, all hands-on deck.’ It was a big job, but that’s what helped save the structure. If we would have kept the plastic on there, that structure would have been destroyed.”
Looking towards the future, Pearl said that a lesson was learned about how easily they could lose access to the island. So, the company’s new protocol is to keep up to 20 extra propane tanks on hand in case they need to keep the generators running for a longer period. Staying in contact with employees was also a large challenge as cell phone systems were down, so Pearl is looking into long range radios for the future as well.
“All in all, I consider ourselves very lucky,” said Pearl. “There’s definitely a way of mitigating your exposure and your risk and your damages but it may cost a little bit extra.”
CATFISH REVIVAL
But will climate challenges reverse the trend? BY
LYNN FANTOM
By the early 1980s, the stage was set to make catfish one of the greatest all-time hits of US aquaculture.
Aeration technology, nutritional feeds, year-round production systems, and the formation of The Catfish Institute for marketing—it all was in place.
But during the first two decades of the new millennium, recession and lower-priced Vietnamese pangasius imports slashed the number of farms in half and severed sales.
A revival of sorts is going on now. In 2021, catfish sales rose to US$421 million, an increase of 12 percent over the prior year
Innovation Beyond Measure
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though still nine percent lower than 2005, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
The question is: will this momentum continue or will climate challenges contract catfish farming again?
The question comes at a time when the “far-reaching and worsening” effects of climate change, as described in a draft of the National Climate Assessment, are being felt by fisheries and farms throughout America. The United States has warmed 68 percent faster than the planet as a whole over the past 50 years, according to the draft report which was issued in November.
But the impact of climate change is uneven across the US. And in the area of America’s south where catfish are as much a part of the culture as the economy, temperature rise has been less than a third of the warming for the contiguous US, according to NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.
“It’s a Catch 22 for us,” said Bradley Richardson, a research fish biologist with USDA’s Agricultural Research Service Warmwater Aquaculture Research Unit in Stoneville, Mississippi.
“On one hand, we aren’t quite as far behind the eight ball as a lot of the U.S. so we have a little more opportunity to make adjustments. But, at the same time, it’s been
kind of a non-issue. And, so, trying to make that paradigm shift and the shift in thinking puts us at a bit of a disadvantage.”
Catfish country
Catfish farming is the largest segment of US aquaculture. Three states—Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas—account for 92 per cent of the total sales. These farms devote 52,800 acres of water surface to production, primarily in earthen ponds.
Unlike Alaska and parts of the Northeast, where temperatures have increased between 3-4 F since early in the 20th century, thermometers have remained remarkably stable in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama. In fact, temperatures have not risen at all in Alabama during that time period and NOAA called the increase in Mississippi “miniscule.”
NOAA hypothesizes that the difference in Mississippi, for example, might be due to increased cloud cover and precipitation, increased small particles from coal burning, natural factors related to forest regrowth, decreased heat flux due to irrigation, and multidecadal variability in North Atlantic and tropical Pacific sea surface temperatures.
“There’s too much unknown still at this point to say whether it’s going to be a net benefit or net negative for us,” added Richardson as he thinks about the future impact of climate change, which he calls “a problem both large and complex.”
But the last five years have seen a change and not for the better. For Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas, they have been the warmest ever, according to NOAA. And “historically unprecedented warming is projected during this century.”
Some like it hot
Labs like Richardson’s in Mississippi—and those around the world—will be learning more about how climate change affects catfish aquaculture but important work has already taken place to suggest possibilities.
Catfish like it hot. They grow best when the water temperature is 75-85 F. Plus, they are adaptable and can survive when it is just above freezing or nearly 100 F, according to the Mississippi State University Extension.
In 2022, scientists from Thailand published a study in the Journal of Thermal Biology in which hybrid catfish were subjected to temperatures of 27, 32, and 37 C for 50 days. At 37 C (98.6 F), feed utilization and growth decreased; skin darkened as well.
“Increased temperatures can reduce the
appetite of the fish, which is going to increase the amount of time that farmers have to hold onto those fish, trying to grow them to market,” said Richardson.
Catfish under stress
In ponds on the farm, the situation is also more complex than in the laboratory because stressors become interlinked. For example, higher temperatures not only stress the fish but also stimulate algae growth. The blooms themselves intensify low oxygen conditions,
Successful catfish farmers have made monitoring water quality a regimen of intensive aquaculture.
PHOTO: ALABAMA COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SYSTEM
COVER WARMWATER SPECIES
especially as cells decay or at night when photosynthesis shuts down.
If fish are already stressed because of higher temperatures and lower oxygen, then they can become more susceptible to bacterial diseases.
“Just like the catfish, bacteria have an optimal growth temperature range as well,” notes Richardson. “And so, as temperatures increase, some bacteria that require lower temperatures may result in a decline in those related disease outbreaks. But at the same time, we may start to see new disease outbreaks from bacteria that we typically don’t have major problems with if they grow better at higher temperatures.”
In particular, Flavobacterium columnaris and Edwardsiella piscicida can cause diseases that result in significant losses.
Researchers at the Alabama extension service also point to blue-green algae, sometimes known as cyanobacteria, as the potential source of serious issues for catfish farmers. “Some, but not all, blue-green algae can produce compounds that are toxic to catfish,” they wrote in a bulletin published in 2021. “Microcystis is among the most common and often leads to problems for catfish farmers.”
Remedies
Algae also secrete chemicals that give an off-flavor or muddy-musty odor to fish that have absorbed them. Catfish can be purged by remaining in the pond for extra time—sometimes weeks or months. But, as an alternative to postponing harvests, farmers have used algicides, nutrient reduction, aerators, and biological controls, like zooplankton and small fish.
Fish losses due to toxic algae episodes caused large losses during the late 1990s, the equivalent of $1.68 million today. The University of Arkansas at Pine Bluffs has taken a proactive approach to address that challenge with an algal monitoring program.
For more than 40 weeks during the 2021 production season, extension specialists collected samples weekly—over 2,800 from approximately 166 ponds. Back at the lab, technicians looked for Aphanocapsa. The program saved an estimated $200,000 worth of catfish, according to the USDA.
Aeration has also been used to fend off or manage algae blooms. In fact, the sight of paddle wheel aerators has almost become a part of the contemporary catfish pond landscape, especially as catfish farming has moved from extensive to intensive aquaculture.
It is predicted that climate change will exacerbate algal blooms, which rob catfish ponds of the dissolved oxygen necessary for fish health.
“When it started out, you had these very large ponds, like 20 acres, and stocking densities weren’t very high, so Mother Nature
PHOTO: ALABAMA COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SYSTEM
did a lot of water quality maintenance, but production was limited,” said Richardson. But over the last couple of decades, intensive aquaculture has brought smaller ponds (in split configurations), higher stocking density, and more expert management aided by technology. According to a 2019-2020 survey, some 60 per cent of farms now produce hybrid catfish, which provide the faster growth
of channel catfish and the greater tolerance for lower dissolved oxygen of blue catfish.
More recently, widespread adoption of electrically powered aerators in lieu of those run by diesel has occurred, along with use of automated monitoring of oxygen.
“Most farmers have a buoy that actually sits in the water, and when the dissolved oxygen gets below a certain point, it will automatically kick on the aerators,” said Richardson. “So farms aren’t running aerators all night long when they’re not needed, and people aren’t driving around to turn on aerators manually.”
It’s become more efficient for operations— and more sensitive to environmental impact, even if it’s not seen that way yet.
Water hardness
Water evaporation during summer months or periods of high precipitation (that dilutes pond water) change the amount of dissolved calcium and magnesium in water.
Proper hardness is key for embryonic development, eggshell integrity, and bone development in fish. But “water hardness above the optimal level can incite toxic effects in fish, which are often species specific,” according to research done at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluffs.
EWOS TRANSFER CLEAR
The study provided a new safety guideline for farmers—and another warning of what might lie ahead with climate change.
When it rains, it can pour
The signs of climate change, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), are not only increased temperatures but increased and intensified precipitation. Wind is a factor, too, Richardson notes.
Such storms can erode the catfish ponds, which were built above ground by constructing embankments to contain the water pumped from underground. Floods not only threaten buildings but also the pond and drainage ditches. Fish could get out and foreign species, like sunfish or crayfish, could get in.
And with more severe droughts, farmers will not be able to rely on rainwater to maintain pond levels where evaporation occurs and will be forced to pump in more well water, further depleting aquifers.
The last few years have foreshadowed some of these conditions. “We are starting to see a lot of the same things that are occurring throughout the rest of the U.S. and, based on EPA estimates, yeah, it’s only going to get worse,” said Richardson.
Tilapia: Alive and well
Are there opportunities for North American producers beyond the ‘live’ market?
BY LYNN FANTOM
Asia and Latin America own the tilapia market, both fresh fillets and frozen.
Their dominance as producers is evident in just a few facts. China alone accounts for almost one-quarter of all farmed tilapia production, which is close to 7 million metric tons globally. And Brazil, which farms well over a half million
tons, is growing at almost 10 per cent. The vertically integrated world leader Regal Springs, with facilities in Mexico, Honduras, and Indonesia, recently received a capital commitment of $14 million that supplements more than $20 million invested in operations during the last two years.
In the face of such market control, the only significant slice of the market open to
U.S. producers has been in live fish, which Kevin Fitzsimmons, one of the world’s foremost tilapia experts, calls a “fairly legitimate production industry.” Here, companies like Virginia-based Blue Ridge Aquaculture have served the preferences of both Asian and Hispanic communities over the past two decades.
But, as North America’s taste for tilapia continues to grow—and it is—so does an
Are You Crushing Pellets to Achieve Sub 1.0mm Feed?
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interest in what’s fresh, traceable, and locally grown. And, what if a U.S. producer doesn’t care about being a speck on a bar chart but has other business and personal values instead?
Warmwater species
The ideal temperature range for growing tilapia is 28-30 C (82-86 F). In North America, that translates into either a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) in a building, under a greenhouse, or in southernmost Texas or Florida. Another opportunity arises with geothermal water, which has spawned tilapia farms in Idaho, southern California, and Arizona.
The climate in North America presents challenges and so do the economics. The higher costs of labor, land, and utilities all contribute to a relative disadvantage, which even extends to transportation. For example, America exports machinery, vehicles, and plastics to Latin America. “But there’s not that much coming back other than cut flowers, fresh fruits, and seafood, so they get a really good rate,” said Fitzsimmons.
A taste for tilapia
Tilapia is now the fourth most popular fish in the US. Whether it’s picked up as a fast-food sandwich or chosen as the center-of-theplate protein for a healthy home meal, inflation-sensitive consumers today particularly appreciate its low-impact on the wallet. A recent price-check at Walmart registered a 60 percent higher price for Atlantic salmon fillets than for tilapia fillets.
Barton Seaver, a chef and expert in sustainable seafood, calls tilapia a “palate for flavors, whatever you want—cumin and coriander, Cajun seasoning, blackening spice.” In videos, where he demonstrates how easy it is to cook even in a toaster oven, he has praised tilapia for its “clean, lean taste” and its health benefits, which compare favorably to salmon in protein, though not omega-3 content.
Live market
In North America, both Asians (Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese) and Hispanics prefer fish that is as fresh as possible—and thus buy it live. Producers truck live tilapia to metropolitan areas in Toronto, the Northeast, upper Midwest, and Pacific Northwest, as well as California and the Southwest region.
But as North America continues to become even more diverse, so do opportunities to sell tilapia beyond urban markets.
That’s what John Lambregts has been doing for over 20 years in southeastern Idaho in a town with a population of 938. He has taken advantage of the area’s geothermal springs that stay 83 F year-round, even when the
system monitoring available
• Salt water and fresh water versions available to suit any species e.g. crab, lobster, geoduck, tilapia and more
thermometer only reaches 10 degrees. They yield 1,000 gallons a minute for his outdoor circular raceways.
Lambregts, a native of the Netherlands, calls the operation Dutch Boy Farms. He currently produces about 250 tons a year and will double that by the end of 2023 with a new property he has acquired. Two more facilities are in the pipeline, he says.
“We are a long way from anywhere,” he added, but customers drive two hours from Ogden, Utah, in the south and two hours from Hamer, Idaho, in the north to get live tilapia, as well as largemouth bass, channel catfish, jade perch, and barramundi. Most customers are Hispanic and repeat buyers. They bring a cooler and often take fish to visit family out of state, explaining to Lambregts “because you’ve got the best fish.” These customers are willing to drive and pay more for fresh fish rather than buying it frozen in a big box store for less, he says.
The retail business he conducts on Saturday is only 10 to 15 per cent of the total. The balance is sold through distributors primarily to retail markets and a few restaurants. COVID-19 killed a big part of his restaurant business, though his website still posts a January 2020 Seattle Times restaurant review that extols the Dutch Boy Farms tilapia in a Sichuan hot-and-sour fish bowl, saying “It’s fresh and firm, velvety and tremulous. It doesn’t flake apart on contact, like lower-quality fish can tend to do.”
Lambregts’ long-term plan is to incorporate greenhouse vegetable production.
Largest indoor producer of tilapia—in the world
Blue Ridge Aquaculture in Virginia hopes to tally up its best year yet in 2022, according to Martin Gardner, who was named president last March. And that’s despite the setbacks of Covid.
Founded in 1993, this RAS producer opened a larger nursery in 2021 and a new feed mill in 2017. It owns everything from
its own broodstock through to the trucks that carry live tilapia to distributors for Toronto, Boston, New York, and Washington DC. Because of its vertical integration, Blue Ridge has been able to keep its prices “competitive” compared to smaller producers for the live market, says Gardner.
“It’s a premium price but it’s a niche market,” he added. “We’ve been positioning Blue Ridge for an expansion over the past eight years. We have always wanted to expand into the fresh fillet market,” he says, though the company has not started that project yet.
“We recognize there’s a void in the marketplace for a valuepriced, sustainable, white meat fish, one that’s domestically produced. We offer a lot of the attributes that consumers are looking for: very fresh, sustainable, local, no antibiotics, no hormones, traceable,” echoing what RAS producers like Florida’s Atlantic Sapphire have been saying about Atlantic salmon.
He added, “Controlled environment agriculture would be a natural tie for our business. Not only can we tap into the nutrients in our effluent, but we can capture the heat from our facilities that we currently exhaust.”
What’s next?
Today, the fresh fillet sector of tilapia farming is dominated by Latin America (China has its hold on the frozen products).
In looking to what’s ahead for US producers, Kevin Fitzsimmons, a past President of the World Aquaculture Society, sees growth—but “relatively slow growth, where
people can develop niche markets, whether that’s white tablecloth restaurants, more Asian grocery stores and restaurants, or farm-tofork situations where consumers are willing to pay a little bit more for fish that’s locally grown.”
Still, it can be “pretty lucrative.”
Another positive development he spotlights is the talent being nurtured by high school aquaponics and aquaculture programs. Maybe one of these
students will follow in the path of Trevor Kenkel, who launched Springworks Farm when he was a freshman in college in Maine. Today, this aquaponics farm’s organic lettuces can be found in New York area Whole Foods as well as 184 New England Hannaford supermarkets. Its tilapia retails at Maine’s Harbor Fish Market, a high-end purveyor of lobster and fresh seafood. Springworks’ website teases,
“Look for an exciting announcement from us soon about where you can find fresh tilapia fillets near you!” although the company was not available for comment. Many critics of the food system are crying out for small, sustainable, and local production. That could be a calling for fish farmers, too. And, as John Lambregts from Grace, Idaho, pointed out, “I live and work where people go on vacation.”
OxyGuard International’s hand-held oximeter, Handy Polaris C, is water-resistant to measure dissolved oxygen and temperature with accuracy.
It is designed for harsh conditions, course to the sturdy and durable box, and to withstand rough and extensive daily use.
The Handy Polaris C has automatic (or manual) logging of data with Bluetooth and QR-tags. The tags are designed to add to the tanks for controlled and direct upload to the online and cloud based “digital farm” Cobália. Cobália enables the collection of all production data to manage the daily tasks and get live updates with warnings and alarms.
The Handy Polaris C can be calibrated on site, has automatic built-in check of hardware and makes automatic compensation for barometric pressure and temperature. Standard equipment is a self-polarizing electrochemical probe and three-metre cable. By request, the cable length can be up to 50 metres. www.oxyguard.dk
SPAROS’ NoviFEED project workshop
The NoviFEED consortium, led by SPAROS, is inviting professionals from the aquaculture and aquafeed sector, including fish farming companies, aquafeed companies and researchers, to participate in the NoviFEED workshop hosted by the Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Norway.
The NoviFEED project workshop, titled “Effects of dissolved oxygen on salmon farming”, will take place Feb. 8 at IMR Pynten, Nordnes, Bergen (Norway) or online.
The aim of NoviFEED workshop is to promote knowledge transfer between the salmon industry and academia on the effects of dissolved oxygen on salmon farming. The panel includes experts from IMR, BIOMAR, MOWI, Xylem/Aanderaa Data Instruments.
The discussion will cover the impact of dissolved oxygen and other environmental factors on fish behaviour, nutrient requirements and feed formulation, as well as the importance of measuring oxygen and other variables for production management.
This workshop is part of the NoviFEED project, financed by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, through EEA grants, in the scope of the program Blue Growth, operated by Directorate-General for Maritime Policy (DGPM), Portugal. www.sparos.pt/projects/novifeed/
PHOTO:
Brown Trout: Biology, Ecology and Management offers a comprehensive review of the scientific information and current research on this major fish species. While the brown trout is the most sought species by anglers, its introduction to various waters around the world is causing serious environmental problems. At the same time, introduction of exogenous brown trout lineages threatens conservation of native gene pools of populations in many regions. The authors summarize the important aspects of the brown trout’s life history and ecology and focus on the impact caused by the species. The text explores potential management strategies in order to maintain numerous damaged populations within its natural distributional range and to ameliorate its impacts in exotic environments.
APRIL 20 – 21, 2023
JW Marriott Orlando, Grande Lakes I Florida, USA
Whether it’s raising fish juveniles, smolt or full-harvest size, this event covers the latest innovations and research in Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) technology. Learn more from global RAS experts and network with your fellow RAS operators, designers, engineers, contractors, consultants, researchers and investors. Engage with over 70 RAS technology & product providers in our trade show and listen to the latest product showcase presentations.
Skretting is with you every step of the way supporting your business
Trust Skretting’ s Nutrace quality system and our experienced team to provide industry leading solutions to meet your fish nutrition needs, the needs of your system and your sustainability goals.
