From open-net-pen farming to RAS to offshore, experts discuss the future of salmon farming. P. 10
Aquaculture winning hearts in Newfoundland
But biological issues remain a grim reality for salmon farmers. P. 14
Government vs The People?
Maine public officials welcome best-in-class salmon aquaculture amidst protests. P. 16
BC salmon farmers still seeking for answers
Industry looks to incoming minister for direction. P. 18
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BY LIZA MAYER
Policy conferences or strategy meetings may sound unexciting to some of us but they are often necessary to help organizations or industries succeed. Last fall, a global conference on aquaculture held in Shanghai did just that.
Called “GCA +20 – The Shanghai Declaration,” the conference highlighted strategies to maximize sustainable aquaculture (through innovation, it was said) and ensuring that the benefits of aquaculture growth is equitable and fairly distributed, reflecting the conference’s special focus on “leaving no one behind.”
The Shanghai Declaration arising from the conference will help shape the future of aquaculture. It will also lay the pathways on how the sector could optimize its contribution to global agri-food systems in line with the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
The draft of The Shanghai Declaration’s call to action centres on investments in “new
technologies, research and development” to realize the full potential of sustainable aquaculture that will benefit not only profits, but equally important, the planet, and people – through employment, poverty reduction, and nutrition.
Another strategy involves the world’s Indigenous Peoples, emphasizing that they should be among those that share in the benefits of aquaculture growth.
It is encouraging to note that our industry is taking the challenge of greening up the sector seriously. This Nov/Dec issue shows investment is being made in technology innovation and in improving feeds to make aquaculture greener, for instance. Furthermore, indigenous communities are also getting economic benefits in the sector, as you will see.
Of course, a great deal still needs to be done. We’re excited to journal that journey.
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Cermaq and Norwegian start-up kelp producer Folla Alger have signed a deal to explore the potential use of nutrients from the salmon cages in kelp farming and the prospects of turning kelp into a new feed raw material for salmon.
The goal of the research project is to test in full scale a new type of plant for integrated production of salmon and kelp.
The project will look at how the nutrients from the salmon cages are taken up in the kelp, how the kelp production affects the aquatic environment in the cages, and what effect the integrated production has on the health of the fish in the cages.
In addition, the project aims to develop kelp into a new feed raw material for salmon.
“Integrated salmon and kelp farming enables us to both utilize nutrients around the farming cages as a resource, and that we get more alternative feed raw materials. It is good circular economy, and will help reduce the footprint from salmon farming,” says Knut Ellekjær, managing director of Cermaq Norway.
Chairman of the board of Folla Alger, Tarald Sivertsen, says the deal will enable the company to “contribute to the development of a new industry and provide environmental benefits, but also jobs and ripple effects.”
$3.5M in NOAA funds to boost
An assortment of project proposals aimed at addressing ongoing and long-term impacts associated with the COVID-19 pandemic on seafood resources shared $2.9 million in funding from NOAA Sea Grant.
From workforce development trainings to establishing nursery protocols for marine finfish to increasing the resilience of oyster farms to disasters, the 13 projects selected from a national competition aim to improve sustainable aquaculture and enable the sector to respond to future disruptions.
The grant recipients across the United States will match 50 percent of their funding with non-federal funds.
NOAA Sea Grant also awarded Maryland Sea Grant $600,000 over four years to coordinate the marine aquaculture development efforts of Sea Grant, NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science and other stakeholders. A new position called National Aquaculture Extension Coordinator was
A Vancouver, BC-based company is planning to raise 3,000 tons of steelhead annually in a land-based facility using recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS).
Gold River Aquafarms says it is just waiting for provincial and federal approval to break ground on the project.
Projects competitively selected from a national competition will share $3.5M in NOAA grant
PHOTO: © MACROVECTOR / ADOBE STOCK
created for this purpose. Jim LaChance, who joined Maryland Sea Grant in March 2021 as Aquaculture Projects Coordinator, will take on the newly created role and become the central point of contact for the aforementioned agencies and other stakeholders.
The facility will be built on a former sawmill near the village of Gold River on Vancouver Island.
Rob Walker, president of Gold River Aquafarms said in a recent interview with
A land-based facility that will produce 3,000MT of steelhead trout is planned in Gold River, BC
the Campbell River Mirror, said the water was ideal for their purposes and that there was lots of local support for the project. He sees the potential to expand production to 10,000 MT per year with a second location.
A lot of people in Gold River lost their jobs when the saw mill closed in 1998. The aquaculture project has the potential to create 75 to 100 new local jobs, according to the Campbell River Mirror
The fasted fish showed catch-up growth, lower incidence of sexual maturation at harvest Accelerating feed intake after a fasting period saw the fasted salmon grow at rates above those of continuously fed counterparts
Farmed Atlantic salmon occasionally abstain from food for a variety of reasons, such as when they lose appetite when sick, or when feed is withheld to keep the water clear (no feces to cloud it) before major farming operations.
But concerns have been raised about the impact of fasting on fish welfare. There’s also the perceived reduction in economic value arising from growth loss.
Now, findings of a new study from Norway may allay those concerns.
Dr Malthe Hvas, head of the study team from the Institute of Marine Research, says the strict focus on continuous feeding in salmon farming due to those concerns is likely exaggerated.
“Our studies show that Atlantic salmon are surprisingly resilient and robust to cope well with prolonged fasting periods, if they have to, and that they have the capacity to compensate growth loss if time allows it,” he told Aquaculture North America.
The study team put Atlantic salmon on a fasting regimen for eight weeks. Their aim was to evaluate impacts on fish welfare in Atlantic salmon post-smolts following the fasting period and to compare growth trajectories during fasting and subsequent refeeding with a continuously fed control group until harvest.
They found that farmed Atlantic salmon were able to fully compensate growth loss following the fasting period by accelerating feed intake and growth rates above those of continuously fed counterparts.
“However, catch-up growth still took several months to achieve, which emphasizes the need for longer studies to fully discern compensatory growth capacities in fish,” the authors wrote.
In addition, the fasted fish did not become aggressive and did not show lower welfare scores than their continuously fed counterparts. Occurrences of vertebral deformities were lower than those of the fed counterparts . And, perhaps more importantly, the fasted fish had lower incidence of sexual maturation at harvest.
The findings may lead Norwegian aquaculture authorities to rethink whether it is still necessary to formulate welfare guidelines for allowable fasting periods.
For the study team, guidelines “may ultimately be redundant since the required time to initiate severe starvation takes much longer than any realistically encountered fasting period in Atlantic salmon aquaculture.”
For salmon farmers, that’s one less guideline to deal with.
Grieg Seafood BC has entered into a net-washing contract with an Indigenous-owned business, the second such deal this year.
Under the agreement, Richard Harry, a member of the Homalco First Nation and owner of R Harry Fishing Ltd, was to begin servicing Grieg’s five farms in Nootka Sound in October 2021.
Harry retrofitted his commercial fishing vessel into a net-washing workboat, which will also house his workers on board. He aquired three automated net washing machines to service the farms.
“In the past 20 years I’ve advocated for aquaculture and believed in it even when others spoke down to it. We see lots of change with the industry and First Nations going forward, and I’ve been a part of that for a long time. This kind of partnership that we’re establishing today can be a model for that,” said Harry.
Grieg Seafood said creating opportunities in its salmon farming operations for Indigenous-owned business is part of its ongoing commitment to Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Call to Action.
In June, it signed a service deal with the Tlowitsis Nation of British Columbia.
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Project aims to produce ‘farmed salmon of the future’ by improving feed
Nofima has launched a four-year initiative to identify innovations that will lead to the next generation of farmed salmon – one that’s “sustainably sourced, fed, produced and distributed.”
To achieve this, Nofima believes work needs to begin with improving the sustainability of feed because it is reliant on constrained resources and because feed production is the highest source of greenhouse emissions in aquaculture.
“Much of the innovation in the ‘farmed salmon of the future’ comes down to feed and finding new alternatives to soy, fish meal and fish oil, which use finite land and marine resources,” says Katerina Kousoulaki, senior researcher in fish nutrition at Nofima.
For this reason, the study will explore the potential of two novel feed ingredients – one derived from algae-based Omega-3s, and another derived from protein-rich, insect-based meal – to provide the industry with the next generation of farmed salmon diets. Nutrition specialists InnovaFeed, Corbion, Algae Ingredients, Cargill, SINTEF
Ocean and Auchan are part of the project.
“Our aim with the study of these two new ingredients will test the levels that are required to optimize physical and nutritional needs of salmon, discover the practical and functional properties of both alternatives, as well as demonstrate the environmental and societal aspects of the suggested innovations,” says Kousoulaki.
She noted that the aquaculture industry is growing rapidly but innovation and new
solutions that address changing consumer behavior can often lag. “There is a critical need to accelerate the global momentum around sourcing, scaling, and developing sustainable, alternative solutions for aquaculture and to address changing consumer behavior.
“While keeping in mind the need to profitably produce healthy seafood, new raw feed ingredients used in feed formulations must work in feed factories, on farm feeding systems and inside the digestive system of the fish.”
The industry should not overlook emerging parasites even as it is taking steps to tackle one of biggest threats to the high-value salmon sector, sea lice, says a parasitologist.
Dr Ian Bricknell, professor of Aquaculture Biology at the University of Maine, says emerging parasites aren’t heard of much because they affect lower-value aquaculture species; the countries where they’re seen do not have robust fish-health monitoring; and also likely because of lack of funding to study them.
“Many freshwater species have a lower economic value and, therefore, they don’t make the Top 10 of economic thresholds that get fish farmers and the economy to take notice of them,” he said at the virtual International Sea Lice Conference hosted by Faroe Islands aquaculture research firm Fiskaaling in September.
He says his online search of the keywords “parasitic copepods and aquaculture” has turned up 190 papers published over the last 40 years; a meagre figure compared with the 1,500 research papers that turned up when he searched for “sea lice.”
Of the 190 papers, 87 were dealing with freshwater copepods and the 103 were on marine copepods, he said.
There are compelling reasons to keep emerging parasites on the industry’s radar. A study from the National Research Council of Canada says parasitic copepods’ importance as disease-causing agents has become evident with the development of semi-intensive and intensive aquaculture.
“Aquatic parasites cost global finfish aquaculture around $9.6 billion a year and sea lice (Lepeophtheirus salmonis and Caligus rogercresseyi) represent around 11.5 percent of that,” said Bricknell.
“There are some estimates that US$0.90 is spent in sea lice control per kilogram of farmed salmon. It is considered to be the number one economic cost to aquaculture worldwide mainly because of the high value of Atlantic salmon.”
He named white spot, saprolegnia and gyrodactylus as the top three parasites following Lepeophtheirus salmonis and Caligus rogercresseyi in terms of impact on aquaculture.
“Parasites can affect a host fitness and survival. Most organisms live with parasites. They can cause a slight inconvenience, a slight loss of fitness, but then as they increase, they may start causing welfare issues to animals that may go into clinical disease and ultimately lead to the animal’s death. Those outcomes occur in both wild and farmed fish.”
“Prevention is better than cure,” he said. “We should be keeping an eye on these emerging trends within sea lice in aquaculture in both freshwater and marine because if we don’t, we’re going to be super busy firefighting these emerging species, just like we ended up with Lepeophtheirus salmonis and Caligus rogercresseyi back in the 70s and 80s.”
Based in the Faroe Islands , the International Sea Lice Conference is the major forum of sea lice research. The next conference will be held in in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands on 9-13 May 2022.
to new methods, but don’t
From open-net-pen farming to RAS to offshore, experts discuss the future of salmon
BY LIZA MAYER
Submersible ROVs, or Remotely Operated Vehicles, allow users to optimize operations by saving valuable time and money around the farm. Read on to learn how you can use your ROV!
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Even as offshore farming’s profile got a big boost in August following the “exciting” announcement of a landmark deal that will create cutting-edge offshore farms, conventional salmon farming will remain the main source of product over the next decade or so, according to experts.
But the experts, speaking at the virtual Salmon Forum 2021 hosted by IntraFish last fall, tempered their optimism about conventional salmon farming because are challenges to overcome if it is to continue to grow and thrive. Opennet-pen farming is “about to reach the kind of the volume that you can expect to get out of it, unless we are able to deal with the sea lice and pathogen issues that are prone in the sea,” said panellist Jon Hindar, former CEO of the Cermaq Group.
But farming in the depths of the sea, which is still very much in pilot mode, also comes with its own sets of issues. Going offshore, Hindar suggested, may not shield operations from sea lice because they are, after all, “dealing with the same fish, with the same biology” that open-net-pen farmers are dealing with.
“If you have large concentration of fish offshore you may expect the same development (sea lice problem) that we see in open farming in the fjords,” said Hindar.
He said, however, that offshore may be “off to a better start” in terms
of positioning itself in the public eye from a sustainability standpoint because accusations against conventional farmers that they pollute the oceans and overuse antibiotics for instance, while undeserved, are unfortunately sticking in the public’s mind. He said the industry has been “very ineffective” in countering this public perception.
Nonetheless, he thinks the creation last August of a joint venture company between Aker ASA and SalMar ASA that will focus on offshore farming is a “very exciting development.”
“If anyone is going to pull this off, I guess that should be SalMar,” says Hindar, referring to the company behind the world’s first offshore fish farm, located in Norway.
The panellists said recent investment in offshore aquaculture is driven by the influx of “new competence” into aquaculture from the declining oil and gas sector, whose players are well versed with navigating the same harsh environments to which offshore fish farms are subject.
Another driver is the Norwegian government’s support, which gives investors the confidence to invest in new technologies.
“We shouldn’t forget that the Norwegian authorities have given some help in taking the risk of developing this kind of technology by issuing
these development licenses. That has catalyzed a lot of innovation, [pushing it to] a different scale than we would have seen if it wasn’t for this kind of ‘risk-relief,” said Einar Wathne, former CEO of aquaculture feed specialist Ewos.
He said fish farmers can expect a new era of regulations along with the development of offshore farming. Indeed, Norway has recently announced its intention to review aquaculture licensing regulations to make them more responsive to the industry’s changing landscape.
Another driver of investment into offshore farming is the “stable earnings history” of the salmon farming industry over the past decade, which hasn’t always been the case, said Atle Eide, former CEO, Marine Harvest (now Mowi). He said this has attracted “a new type of investor.”
The time of RAS will come
Despite the misfortunes over the summer of land-based aquaculture pioneer Atlantic Sapphire, the panellists acknowledged recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) as a potential component of future production.
Farming in RAS is a work in progress and early investors in it have been “excessively brave… at least for my risk-taste,” said Hindar. “I have looked at a number of land-based
“The
time of RAS will come”
projects have found some of them very well thought through; but many of them pretty naïve, overlooking a lot of the difficulties. So I have a kind of a dualistic view on it,” he said.
Like Wathne though, Hindar believes the time of RAS will come, likely in a 10-year horizon when the industry has mastered the technology.
Wathne sees leading names in conventional salmon farming who have been “skeptical” or perhaps rightly prudent about the technology to join the RAS bandwagon in the “second wave” when they would have learned and built on their knowhow on producing large smolt in RAS.
As customers seek greener food supply, conventional salmon production will benefit from
new technology, said the experts. Calling it “cage farming 2.0,” Wathne says smart salmon farming is underway but there’s still many tools that have not even been applied yet.
These “can address some of the criticisms of the industry as they will take care of some of the discharge from the open systems, address sea lice, help improve the environment,” he added.
“There is say a bright future for the traditional salmon farming, but we will have to deal with the environmental challenges which are also for real,” concurs Eide. “The biggest limitation (of conventional farming) is the license to operate.” We have to address society in a better way.”
Minister of Fisheries and Aquaculture for Nova Scotia Steve Craig lays out his vision for making aquaculture a part of the solution for rebuilding the province’s economy. Appointed to this portfolio by the province’s newly elected Premier in August 2021, Craig’s mandate includes implementing a licensing process that ‘places much weight on environmental considerations,’ mapping out the province’s coastal areas – akin to Norway’s traffic-light system – based on their suitability for finfish farming, and engaging with the community regarding open-net pen aquaculture.
Our new government in Nova Scotia supports low-impact/ high-value, sustainable aquaculture. While we are new in office, aquaculture in Nova Scotia has a long history; it’s been here since confederation when Canada’s oldest oyster farm began producing American oysters here, in the community of Malagash in 1867. The industry in our province has been growing incrementally over the decades, and today is valued at $90 million, employing more than 800 people, with high paying jobs in rural Nova Scotia. Aquaculture is a key economic driver in coastal communities across the province, and, as the new minister responsible, I am keen to see more coastal communities learning more about aquaculture’s benefits and embracing the positive future it holds for our rural economy.
It is a future First Nations are actively embracing in Nova Scotia. In fact, six of the 13 band councils in the province are engaged in aquaculture, and We’koqma’q First Nations in beautiful Cape Breton is the largest producer of farmed trout in eastern Canada.
We see aquaculture as an exciting industry that can be grown and expanded in our province, responsibly and sustainably, offering great opportunities. Our government, through the diligent efforts of our
department, will work to build public confidence and community acceptance through better communication and education.
I’ll be asking our department to ensure the province’s Aquaculture Expansion Plan has a strong strategy in place to make the public aware of the potential of a sustainable aquaculture industry. This is a critical part of our plans for the future. It is through honest dialogue and public-facing regulatory processes that we intend to create the foundation for greater public trust.
This is important given that aquaculture is the fastest growing segment of food production in the world today, with over 50 percent of all seafood consumed being farmed. Simply put, there are not enough fish in the ocean to feed a growing population. Sustainable aquaculture is not a want, it is a necessity. We recognize aquaculture’s importance to food security and see a future where Nova Scotia is a leading destination for sustainable aquaculture investment.
We understand that the other critical keys to growing this industry well are effective regulations, legislation, and science-based decision making.
In 2015, an independent study of the industry in Nova Scotia, the Doelle-Lahey Report, recommended some important regulatory changes. Looking forward, we will be reviewing
“We recognize aquaculture’s importance to food security and see a future where Nova Scotia is a leading destination for sustainable aquaculture investment.”
the report and ensuring that the right reforms are in place to support key recommendations that are still relevant and will support a framework to build a sustainable industry.
The Doelle-Lahey Report concluded that “through incremental development and continuous improvement to minimize negative impacts and risks while maximizing benefits, marine-based fin-fish aquaculture has the potential to make an important contribution to sustainable prosperity in Nova Scotia.”
We agree. Our government will set out to achieve that development and continuous improvement by encouraging greater community trust, working closely with First Nations, and ensuring a proper regulatory regime is in place that promotes responsible aquaculture expansion. Our industry partners recognize the importance of an effective regulatory framework for sustainable growth. And we recognize the importance of sustainable aquaculture as a key part of Nova Scotia’s future food security and rural prosperity.
Nova Scotia’s long coastline, clean water, and well-established marine infrastructure make it well suited for continued sustainable development. We welcome new projects that meet this vision. There may be challenges, yes, but we are confident they can be remedied through honest dialogue, cooperation, innovation, and decisions based on science. Looking ahead, using these tools, we intend to help build a foundation for the industry’s future in our province that is not just sustainably prosperous but also a tribute to the legacy of aquaculture’s historic start in Nova Scotia, a century and a half ago.
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BY LIZA MAYER
Enthusiasm for Newfoundland and Labrador’s aquaculture industry appears unstoppable as latest insights show community support is on the uptick and the salmon sector is on a better footing to recapture growth. .
Public research conducted during the pandemic shows 71 percent of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians fully support seafood farming, up from 56 percent in the 2017 survey by pollster MQO Research. The latest poll also shows opposition to aquaculture has diminished, with just 6 percent against it, down from 14 percent in 2017.
Executive director of the Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association (NAIA), Mark Lane, says the realization that aquaculture provides a “heightened level of food security,” such as seen in this pandemic, has mobilized community support. “We’ve seen what happens when you don’t get to transport food and goods into the province,” he says.
The tremendous growth in economic activity in coastal towns due to seafood farming has also helped sway public opinion towards aquaculture, says Lane. Latest data shows
In 2020, salmon production contracted by roughly 45 percent to 7,802 MT due to biological and environmental challenges
salmon farming alone has created 1,950 direct and indirect jobs.
The provincial government recognizes the industry’s role in the economic recovery of the debt-ridden province. A highly anticipated report released in May offered a six-year plan to revitalize the economy, including the need to streamline the regulatory decision-making processes for aquaculture licences and site approvals to facilitate industry growth.
“Aquaculture can provide employment to help sustain rural communities. The province needs a responsive regulatory regime that protects the environment while allowing the industry to grow. Marketing and communication efforts are required to help Newfoundlanders and Labradorians understand the economic benefits of the industry,” says “The Big Reset” report.
And if the rise in NAIA’s membership numbers is any indication, industry players are also keen to grow the industry and benefit from its growth. In the last year, since the covid pandemic’s onset, NAIA added 30 international service suppliers to its membership, bringing the total to roughly 150 members. This represents a 300-percent growth in six years, says Lane.
However, salmon production has been trending down from 2016’s bumper production of 25,411 MT as biological and environmental woes continue to hound the province’s three salmon producers – Mowi, Cooke and Grieg NL.
Government data shows overall salmon yield went down 6 percent to 14,167 tonnes in 2019 from the previous year as a result of “temperature events” that killed 2.6 million or roughly 5,000 MT of salmon at Mowi Canada East.
In 2020, overall production further contracted, by roughly 45 percent, to 7,802 MT.
The decline did not come as a surprise to Mowi nor to the industry regulator, the Ministry of Fisheries and Land Resources.
“Anytime you have a major issue in salmon farming like the company had in 2019, it takes years for those sorts of repercussions to kind of roll through the system,” Mowi Canada East managing director Alan Cook told this publication in an interview this past summer. “We had pretty limited production out of Eastern Canada last year.”
Incidents involving infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) have landed the salmon producers in the headlines over the past several months. The finfish disease, detected initially in the mid-90s in Atlantic Canada, has caused significant economic losses for them as they have had to harvest salmon prematurely or cull entire cohorts of salmon when the virus is detected.
Parent company Mowi ASA reported losses of $17.7 million (€15 million) in the second quarter of 2021 as a result of early harvests of ISA-diseased salmon at its Newfoundland unit. This past summer, Grieg NL reported suffering “minor financial impact” from the culling of a million fish after one of them was found to have the virus.
Environmental challenges due to sudden low dissolved oxygen levels at a Mowi farm site on the province’s south coast killed more than 92,000 salmon in September.
Though the science and the technology around salmon farming is much improved and farmers are more environmental-impact focused, those dark clouds threaten to impede progress.
Mowi COO for Farming Americas, Fernando Villarroel, whose areas of responsibility include Chile, Atlantic Canada and Western Canada, says improving the biological performance of the company’s operations in Newfoundland, in particular ISA and sea lice management, are a top priority.
Pre-pandemic file photo shows a fish processing operation in Newfoundland. Salmon farming created 1,950 direct and indirect jobs in the province
Last summer, Mowi Canada East for the first time put into operation a full range of sea lice control systems. It also restructured, cut the fat in the organization, and is keeping a keen eye on costs.
“Newfoundland, is one of the few farming regions with significant potential for growth, and Mowi has the fundamentals in place to capture such potential,” says Villaroel, adding that goal is to reach a stable production of 25,000 tons per year.
According to Cook, another goal is to expand Mowi’s presence in the province with the addition of two new farms in 2022, and one each in 2023 and 2024.
Other farmers, also attracted to the province’s proximity to eastern Canada and the northeastern United States markets, do not want to be left behind.
A number of them have responded to the Department of Fisheries’ October 2020 call for Expression of Interest (EOI) in establishing marine salmon farming
operations in the south coast of the province. The Fisheries Department identified the “Bays West” area as having the potential for commercial development, which could add approximately 15,000 to 20,000 MT to Newfoundland’s annual production of Atlantic salmon, it says.
A department spokesperson in September told this publication that applicants meeting the assessment criteria for the EOI have been invited to participate in the second phase of the procurement process. “The final proponent will be selected in late 2021” after proposals submitted in phase three are assessed, said the spokesperson.
As the industry further develops and expands salmonid operations, the province anticipates that salmonid production will exceed 50,000 MT – more than six times current volumes –by 2030, and provide an even bigger economic boost by contributing as much as $600 million to the province’s coffers and creating 7,000 additional jobs.
BY LYNN FANTOM
In a few short years, Maine has become a laboratory for innovation in salmon aquaculture. But while governmental entities have firmly backed these advances, pockets of fierce public opposition persist.
Governor Janet Mills’ 10-year economic development strategy calls for advancing aquaculture to complement traditional fishing. But, beyond that, it cites the opportunity to develop “sustainable food sources closer to markets” which can take advantage of Maine’s leadership in veterinary science, marine research, and waterfront workforce. That sounds straight from a salmon producer’s business plan.
Americans love their salmon. But the question looms in the Pine Tree State: will Maine grow it for them?
In late August, Nordic Aquafarms received the last official permit required for its $500- million recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) in Belfast –more than three years after holding its first public informational meeting. But celebration was clouded by a yet-to-be-decided lawsuit over who owns intertidal land the company needs for its intake and outflow pipes.
Public opposition to Nordic Aquafarms’ project had come early on, sparked by concerns about possible environmental impacts and the swift support the company had received from the local Belfast government. Lawsuits ensued and were resolved, except for this one case still pending before the county court.
Then, a new drama emerged early last summer. Nordic Aquafarms purchased a waterfront parcel – next to the disputed intertidal property – and sold it to the City of Belfast for one dollar, in exchange for a permanent easement for aquaculture piping installation, operation, and maintenance. The mayor announced it would make a “tremendous” waterfront park with walking trails.
About a month later, the City Council voted unanimously to use eminent domain to take over the entire area, including the disputed intertidal zone. Nordic Aquafarms’ opponents are now asking that the City be named in the pending court suit, according to Maine Public.
This fall the Norwegian entrepreneurs behind American Aquafarms made their first trip to Maine after announcing plans for a $250-million project in Frenchman Bay that would feature cages of an innovative floating semi-closed design. On the agenda was a public meeting to
address a broad spectrum of opponents, but it was cancelled at the last minute due to COVID concerns.
Much of the pushback against this venture focuses on its proximity to famous Acadia National Park. At its closest point, the salmon farm would be just 2,000 feet away, say park officials.
Kayakers, tour boats, and cruise ships all vie for these pristine, island-dotted waters, as do lobstermen, kelp farmers, and mussel growers. They were among the end-of-summer protest when 125 boat owners organized as the “Save the Bay” flotilla and circled the bay.
Ted O’Meara, a Maine public relations veteran, was there and spoke to Aquaculture North America (ANA) afterwards about American Aquafarms. “It’s clear that these are the wrong people in the wrong place who have built their project around 30 net pens using a technology that was only recently introduced to North America with a trial of just one pen. That’s not good enough for Maine, and with the opposition that is building, I don’t think they will be successful.”
The opposition in this case also includes some parts of government, namely the Bar Harbor-based officials of Acadia National Park. In July, the park superintendent sent a five-page letter of concerns to the Department of Marine Resources, where American Aquafarm’s preapplication is still under review.
Just about halfway between Belfast and Bar Harbor sits Bucksport, a community of 5,000 that welcomed the idea of a large, commercial salmon farm in 2018 after 575 workers had lost their jobs when the local paper mill closed a few years earlier.
Whole Oceans purchased 100 acres at the former mill site to build
a $180-million RAS farm. Last December, it added 10 acres in the area of its saltwater intake that would also provide deep water access and a wharf with a warehouse.
In under two years, Whole Oceans secured nine local, state, and federal approvals, getting the greenlight at the end of 2019. By the following spring, the company had brought Michael Thompson on board as senior project coordinator to lead on-site work, including assembling design and construction teams and managing contractors.
This year, Whole Oceans thought it might get a helping hand from government when a bill was filed in April on behalf of Governor Mills that would exempt land-based aquaculture facilities from certain state building and energy code requirements, just as agricultural buildings are. “In our world, salmon are livestock,” Thompson told Bar Harbor-based MDIslander.
The Sierra Club of Maine provided testimony against the bill, known as LD 1473, and it died in committee.
Cooke Aquaculture of Atlantic Canada has farmed Atlantic salmon in traditional net pens in three areas of Maine since 2004. Its southern-most cages are around Black Island, close to Bar Harbor.
Last August, Cooke self-reported the mass mortality of over 115,000 Atlantic salmon at two southern sites. It said the deaths were a result of low oxygen levels in the pens. Maine Department of Environmental Protection found no violations. The event was an issue of low oxygen in the pens, which is not a compliance issue, it said.
But the news that Friday morning in August about the die-off inflamed a public already smoldering about aquaculture. It came just in time for Sunday’s “Save the Bay” flotilla about 20 miles north as the seagull flies.
The change in leadership of the federal government department in charge of regulating aquaculture in British Columbia is giving salmon farmers in the province some hope that things will change for the better.
Canadian politician Bernadette Jordan exited her post as Minister of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) following her defeat in her electoral district in Nova Scotia during the federal election this past September. Some saw her loss as a reflection of her handling of a dispute involving Aboriginal fishing rights in that province.
In British Columbia, Jordan’s December 2020 order to remove 19 salmon farms in the Discovery Islands area of BC by the end of June 2022 and to immediately cease restocking those
farms sent shock waves across the aquaculture community. Some saw it as a political move and a disregard of scientific evidence showing fish farms pose only minimal risk to wild salmon.
BC’s farmed salmon industry is hoping the incoming minister, whom Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had yet to name as of press time, will find a path that will save “1,500 BC jobs, $21.5 million in annual tax revenues, and up to 10.7 million juvenile salmon and eggs,” which an independent study says will result from Jordan’s decision.
It is not the first time that farms in BC have been shut down in the name of wild-salmon conservation. Seventeen farms were decommissioned in the Broughton Archipelago roughly a year before Jordan’s tenure, but the industry and Indigenous communities met
that decision with goodwill because they were involved the process.
“That was a challenging process, for sure, but one that did bring everyone together to create a process for how to move forward versus the way this decision in the Discovery Islands was executed,” recalls John Paul Fraser, executive director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association.
Getting clarity around the oft-quoted “transition plan” around the Discovery Islands order
is on the industry’s agenda with the incoming minister. The lack of “specifics and definition of transition has also created some uncertainty about the future and the direction,” Fraser says, emphasizing that having certainty is crucial for the industry to move forward.
“Innovation in aquaculture is not easy and certainly not cheap. It takes time and takes a significant amount of financial investment that is critical to build the kinds of systems that we’re all looking at and thinking about.
But you can’t expect those funds not to follow confidence. So we will continue to strive for that certainty and hope that in the months to come, with the new government, and the new minister, we can work hard to address that.”
Fraser also hopes to see the new minister visit BC to see firsthand the opportunities that aquaculture creates in coastal communities.
“We haven’t had a federal minister come visit and meet our people for a very long time; the pandemic has obviously been a part of that but hopefully we could do that and create a really valuable opportunity to come have a look and learn and meet the people and see what we’re up to,” he says.
In view of Jordan’s decision, salmon producer Mowi Canada West is restructuring its operations in British Columbia so it could maintain its annual production volumes of 30,000 GWT on fewer sites and leaner manpower as the company estimates 200 staff will be let go by end of June 2022.
Mowi Americas COO Fernando Villaroel, in a presentation to investors in March, says the priority now is to secure Mowi’s investment in the BC by forging “local relationship and agreements to support federal and provincial advocacy.”
The aquaculture community is watching developments in BC, especially as the federal government aims to move the province by 2025 from net pen farming to other forms of production systems – a Trudeau pledge during the 2019 elections.
“If you’re an international salmon farming company investing in Canada, what’s happening in BC should make you nervous regardless of whether you’re investing in the east coast or the west coast,” commented Alan Cook, Mowi Canada East managing director, who started his aquaculture career at Mowi in BC in the late ‘90s.
“DFO has the same power over us on the east coast as they do on the west so I don’t know if it’s making the east coast any more attractive. Overall it’s making Canada less attractive as an investment destination for salmon farming companies,” he said.
Executive director of the Newfoundland Aquaculture Industry Association, Mark Lane, agrees. “We need more assurance from our federal politicians from coast to coast that they believe in aquaculture, that we have a future in Canada, and that the majority of Canadians support aquaculture,” said Lane.
– By Liza Mayer
‘Harvest in mid-2022 will show what land-based is capable of,’ says exec
Atlantic Sapphire has been hit with unfortunate circumstances over the last several months, but there’s been progress behind the grim headlines, says company CFO and managing director, Karl Øystein Øyehaug.
He says the company is only “months away” from showing the world what landbased salmon farming could do.
The Florida facility has over the last couple of months finally achieved stable operating conditions that the fish need in order to thrive, he said, it was something that the early batches of fish didn’t have.
The company has blamed construction-related issues for the massive fish losses – five incidents since February 2020.
“This has had an effect on our ability to provide our fish with the right conditions, and therefore also to deliver on the volume side, which directly results in financial performance,” Øyehaug said last September in Undercurrent webinar, “The land-based RAS boom in the balance.”
A shakeup of the organization following the loss of 500 tons of salmon at the Florida facility in March has lent some stability.
“Now, all of those issues have been fixed, risk is considerably lower in our day-to-day operations. We are now operating more than 12 independent systems, all stocked with fish. And when the fish introduced in middle of 2020 are harvested in mid-2022, the industry will really see what it could aim for here and what economics really look like,” said Øyehaug.
“Investors can expect to really see biological KPIs on the new batches of salmon we have in our US facility that have actually had the conditions that we know as salmon farmers they need in order to deliver biologically.
“So what we will be doing over the next 12 months until we are in full, steady-state production in Phase 1 is to give the investor community KPIs on how things are going, how our growth curves are looking, how biomass gain is looking, to make it easier for people to track the positive developments because at the end of the day and the reality with salmon farm is that there is a long lifecycle from egg to harvest.
“So we were going to develop our reporting even further to make it easier to follow everything from all the positives we’re seeing on the demand side. But, also most importantly, on
nvestment interest
The rich care about the environment just like many of us, but while we pitch in by recycling our empty bottles, some of the world’s wealthy invest millions in climate-change solutions – each a commendable effort, by the way.
Land-based salmon farming is one of the innovations that has caught the eye of the clients of CREO Syndicate, a New York-based organization that helps smooth the path for the wealthy to realize their impact-investing goals.
Recirculating aquaculture is seen as aligned with what C.R.E.O. stands for: Cleantech, Renewable Energy and Environmental Opportunities.
Yet interest in the sector waned after “concerns around many of the risks” have been magnified over the past few months, said Maggie Fried, head of Ocean, Seafood and Aquaculture Investor Consortium at CREO. Fried says there was significant interest in
land-based aquaculture when she started in her role 18 months ago. “Whenever I would connect with these investors. It seems like the topic was top of mind so much so that I pulled together a group discussion of our members so that they could share with one another what they are seeing in the sector –both their interests as well as their concerns,” she recalled.
Fast forward to September 2021, she said there is “less excitement” around the space and the “initial interest is not being taken into diligence as it was previously.”
the biological side because the financial story of land-based is all about producing sufficient volumes to justify the high upfront costs. We can fortunately see positive indicators of that biologic performance long time before the actual harvest of the fish happens.”
He lamented these positive indicators in its operations have been overshadowed by recent events, including the fire at its Denmark facility in September that gutted the pilot facility, killed all the fish and erased a quarter of the company’s market value.
“Being publicly listed and having to notify the outside world of everything that happens in the company basically, that has its pros and cons. There is no doubt that when we have negative events such as a fire (in Denmark) …then that is something that really overshadows all of the very important positive developments that happened day-to-day in our operations.”
As to whether farming steelhead trout is on the horizon for the company, Øyehaug says it is not a strategic priority but would at some point likely be farmed as a supplementary species. “Our eyes have always been on Atlantic salmon,” he said.
“There’s a strong desire to see the cost of production get lower and be closer to that of ocean-based production,” said Fried in the Undercurrent webinar, “The land-based RAS boom in the balance.”
According to Bloomberg, CREO “focuses on the richest of the rich, working with about 200 families and investment outfits with a total of more than $800 billion under management.” Yet, Fried said, the significantly high capex requirements of land-based salmon operations “precludes them from having meaningful impact in ownership of the company, if that’s their strategy. And for many of them, it is.”
Still, there are those that want to be a part of the growth story, although not through investing in live-production assets, but rather in ancillary services, she said.
“I have seen a number of our members who might be interested in this space and want to be able to in some ways engage in at capitalize on its success, but they’re not doing it through investing in production.
“They’re doing it through investing in ancillary technologies and companies that plan to partner with RAS production companies but aren’t actually doing the production
Nordic Aquafarms has yet to break ground on its land-based salmon facility in Maine but company president Erik Heim (inset) sees an opportunity in the delay
Erik Heim, Nordic Aquafarms president, is undaunted by delay in the construction of the company’s land-based salmon farm in Belfast, Maine.
been clear: you have to have a great deal of respect for these projects; they are complex. I think history will repeat itself; quite a few of these will never see the light of day and, hopefully, a few have a really good crew on board and a good location and they can see some success.”
The first phase of the $400-million facility was expected to begin in 2019, but for Heim, working to make sure all the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed is more important than rushing to build.
“There’s a lot of different factors that come into play that can influence a process and take it different directions along the way,” says Heim. “We’ve been through this in Denmark and Norway as well. And we’re doing it in California. We’ve done it a few times so we’re not surprised when things take a turn, so to speak.”
Heim is referring to the delays in permitting and opposition from some members of the Maine community (see related report on page 16), but he sees this as an opportunity to “keep on de-risking the project.”
Without mentioning any names, he pointed out the downsides of what happens when things are rushed.
“We’re taking things in a responsible conservative step-by-step approach. The most important thing for us is that things are in order and that we feel confident about engineering everything before we start working. That’s actually more important than rushing to do something,” he says.
Indeed, “slow and steady wins the race” appears to be Heim’s philosophy in building the company’s operations. While he agrees “economies of scale are going to matter,” how one achieves that also matters, he says.
“For example if you develop a moderate scale, say 1,000- or 2,000MT operation, which in itself is actually quite a project, you have a four- to five-year learning cycle before you actually get results out of that facility from the time you start developing it.
“And that’s the challenge here – the learning cycles and development cycles are long. So I think the problem is, if you don’t take that stepping stone on a smaller scale which is a part of the learning curve, you’re just taking a huge risk. But if you start at a small-scale, I agree: economies of scale are going to matter like in all aquaculture. It’s just a question of how big of a risk you are willing to take on behalf of your investors to get there.”
The negative attention around salmon production using recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) in recent months could serve as a warning to potential investors, suggests Heim.
“I think one of the consequences of some of what we’ve seen is that investors will be more picky, more careful. And that hopefully will benefit some players that have a very good foundation for succeeding while others that may have a weaker one will not get financed. So that could be a benefit of it. That increases the chances of success and potentially decreases the number of cases that might fail.”
Data from Spheric Research shows there are 160 RAS salmon projects worldwide this year, of which around 70 percent are still in conceptual stage. Heim sees a very small number of these will materialize.
“In the 10 years I’ve been in the industry, I think maybe one or four projects see the light of day. It’s been true for some time. I have always
For potential investors, he suggests “really scrutinizing the technology, capabilities, track record really carefully because RAS is not RAS: there can be huge technological differences between facilities, there can be huge differences in experience base. Are they actually operating anything? Do they have a track record in operating when they’re starting on a big scale? All these questions I would be looking at.”
Is going public on the horizon for Nordic Aquafarms? Heim says there’s no immediate plans for it but he is not discounting it totally. “We have had strong shareholders so we haven’t had the need to go public. As things are looking now, we don’t really see a need in the near term to do that.”
Heim is now focused on shepherding Nordic Aquafarms to the next phase of the project, which is final engineering and construction.
“It’s very different. We’ve done this a couple of times before but it requires a shift in how we work because we’re moving into a much more intensive phase when we approach construction. As we get ways down into final engineering, we will probably start announcing some dates then in terms of construction start and that will give the whole fish-in-water timeline.”
Seafood industry veteran wonders whether impact of Atlantic Sapphire’s crisis will ripple through the emerging RAS industry
The bad news for Atlantic Sapphire just keeps piling up like a slow-motion train wreck.
Since February 2020, there have been five derailings – all involving catastrophic fish losses. The latest disaster involves a devastating fire on 15 September at the company’s Danish operations, which gutted the pilot facility, killed all fish in it and wiped out roughly 25 percent of the publicly listed company’s market value.
Personally, my heart goes out to the employees, local community and investors in this facility. Fires are devastating and emotionally very cruel. Fires are also a fact of life, but under the right circumstances, people can recover from them.
Although the Danish facility was not a major production facility, its role as an R&D facility is crucial in helping lower operational risk in the company’s much larger operations in Miami, Florida. The Florida operations now need to take on derisking untested innovations itself. It is an added risk in an already risky business.
At the time of the fire, Atlantic Sapphire was raising trout in a pilot project at the Danish
facility. In an operational update dated 26 August, company CEO Johann Andreassen says farming trout is something that has been discussed internally “for years. “We would like, at some point when the time is right, to try to farm steelhead trout,” he said.
The latest crisis may just have advanced that plan.
Farming trout alongside Atlantic salmon or switching to trout altogether, if it happens, could add a new wrinkle for investors to digest: firstly, the trials are likely to require more resources because the farm is much larger; secondly, trout has not been proven in RAS in the large sizes (3+kg) that command premium prices; and thirdly, there is a significant market risk with trout in the United States. Atlantic Sapphire will need to invest additional capital in developing a market for large trout (steelhead) in the US and it will likely be more of a challenge to fetch a premium price for large trout.
Stock market bubbles occur for many reasons. One of the fundamental reasons is that the stock prices become decoupled from the underlying business performance, yet they continue to rise based on the assumption that future investors will continue to provide liquidity. When investors realize at some point that the gap between the stock price and the business fundamentals is too great, the price crashes.
To illustrate, I looked at the performance of Atlantic Sapphire and another publicly traded company, the Evergrande Group, a Chinese property developer currently in financial trouble. Both graphs show price trends that point to a bursting bubble.
The graph showing Atlantic Sapphire’s stock price performance mirrors investor sentiment. Its stock price continued to rise and began decoupling from the financial performance of the company as early as 2018 when harvest volume was only 12 percent of projected and the EBITDA losses were 50-percent higher than projected. The decoupling peaked in mid-2021 when the cumulative harvest volumes were still only about 10 percent of projected and the cumulative EBITDA was $105,065,000 below expectations and not showing any signs of improving. Since late March of 2021 the final stage of bubble bursting – panic – has taken hold, with the stock loosing approximately 75 percent of its value and more than one billion USD of market capitalization.
Will Atlantic Salmon’s fate sour investors on the entire Atlantic salmon RAS industry? Or is Atlantic Sapphire a special case? Time will tell. Recently, Maggie Fried of the CREO group gave a presentation where she outlined investor concerns when it comes to RAS. (See related report about family offices souring on RAS, page 20.)
• Ongoing capital needs even for established companies are too high
• Cost of production is still too high – needs to be closer to net pen costs
• Long production cycle – off-flavor is still a problem
• Needs returns in the needed time frame
• Upfront capital is too high without enough access to debt to defray equity costs
Rabobank has also assembled a partial list of RAS operational risks
• High capex
• Limitations to scale
• Profitability
• Long-term returns low
• Consumer acceptance not assured
• High stocking density
• Reliance on premium pricing
• Technological failure frequency too high
• Biological challenges; disease, mortality, early maturity, slow growth product quality – off-flavor
• Permitting
• Acceptance by local community
• Regulatory – water intake and discharge waste
These concerns will need to be addressed if the sector is to continue to attract investment. Many of the issues are complex and some are wicked problems. It will not be easy.
Was net pen farming just as risky in the beginning?
Several people have compared the early stages of RAS salmon to the early stages of net-pen salmon farming. Some suggested that the current problems with RAS were no different than the early problems with net-pen farming. It was a new technology, suffering from heavy losses and had limited access to capital. All were true. But there’s one big difference: there were many profitable net-pen farms from the very beginning. Consolidation in the net-pen industry did not occur until production outstripped market demand, leading to a dramatic drop in salmon prices. When this happened, many net pen salmon farming companies had strong balance sheets, and these companies were able to consolidate the industry through mergers and acquisitions. Post consolidation, the industry had remained profitable for the last quarter century.
In the case of RAS salmon, the story is different. RAS for commercial growout of salmon has been in play for a couple of decades – so it is not “new” as some would suggest. In using RAS for raising smolts, many of the technological problems have already been sorted out and net pen farmers have successfully used it in tandem with net-pen farming in the second phase of the salmon life cycle. Its use in salmon growout remains fraught with technological and biological challenges. This makes financial viability elusive.
Dr Brad Hicks has been working in the fish farming industry for over 40 years, has raised six species on a commercial basis and helped pioneer sablefish aquaculture. He was COO for various successful fish farming operations throughout Canada, the US and Chile, and VP of fish feed operations in Canada. Pertinent to this current discussion, Dr Hicks was responsible for the decision to install the first RAS smolt rearing facility in British Columbia in the mid-1990s. He holds degrees in fish and wildlife biology BSc, veterinary pathology MSc and veterinary medicine DVM.
Cutting-edge fish-farming tools help the industry enhance efficiency and sustainability
BY NESTOR ARELLANO
If there’s any positive repercussion coming from the COVID-19 pandemic, it could well be the realization that aquaculture plays a vital role in Canada’s food security. That, in a nutshell, is Susan Farquharson’s silver lining take on the pandemic’s impact on Atlantic Canada’s farmed fish industry.
The executive director of Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association (ACFFA) said agencies from all levels of government and business quickly adopted an all-hands-on-deck approach and worked together to protect the industry. These allowed fish farmers to weather the pandemic’s initial blow, power through subsequent challenges and even prepare for post-COVID growth.
Statistics Canada’s 2019 salmon production numbers for the Atlantic region are at 55,000 tons. “We don’t have the official numbers yet for 2020, but I expect that numbers did not change much. Our outlook for the industry here is strong,” said Farquharson.
Government support
“Very early on, our industry was deemed an essential service,” says Farquharson. “This granted us certain exemptions that allowed our employees and supply chains to operate and move through provincial and US-Canada borders.”
In June this year, ministers responsible for aquaculture in the Atlantic provinces also signed a memorandum of understanding to continue working together for the industry’s growth.
“This partnership solidifies our collective commitment to align regulations, policies and standards between our provinces as well as to enhance the legislative landscape,” says Margaret Johnson, New Brunswick’s minister for agriculture, aquaculture, and fisheries. “This work will provide the industry with a clear,
predictable and consistent framework in which to operate.”
A month later, the federal government announced the release of $10 million to assist the province’s fish and seafood processing sector. The funding is meant to help businesses adapt processing operations with new equipment, materials, and modify the workplace to improve employee health and safety.
water temperatures are wreaking havoc to aquaculture operations. Warming ocean waters do not only stress out salmon, but they also worsen the impact of sea lice on the fish.
To reduce dependence on labor, companies are turning to robotics, sensors, and advanced feed systems that require less human intervention and presence in sea farms. Companies are also looking to cutting-edge fish-farming tools to help them deal with sea lice issues, according to Farquharson. “This industry is always learning, investing in new technology to grow better, to grow sustainably.”
The ACFFA executive also foresees the increasing use of land-based recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facilities for postsmolt rearing. Fish will be grown to much larger sizes in land-based facilities so that their exposure to risky elements in marine environment will be cut in half.
New Brunswick is already ‘pretty saturated’ but expansion is still possible by making better use of existing marine farms, says Susan Farquharson, head of the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association
“These investments will help the sector adapt to the new realities of COVID-19, bounce back from the pandemic and play a leading role in our economic recovery,” said Dominic Leblanc, minister of intergovernmental affairs.
Same normal, new variables
“We’re dealing with the new normal, although as my friend would say ‘it’s still the same normal, just new variables’,” says Farquharson.
The main challenges faced by New Brunswick’s salmon farming industry continue to be access to skilled or trainable workers and climate change.
The pandemic has made it doubly hard for companies to find new hires. For instance, in 2020, the province’s major employer, Cooke Aquaculture launched a media campaign to entice New Brunswickers to fill 100 vacant positions.
The elements have always been a critical factor when it comes to farming salmon offshore. However, record-setting, higher
“This is important because it is in that marine environment where we are seeing unpredictable climate change events, whether it’s warming water or less dissolved oxygen or whatever,” she says.
New Brunswick is considered the heart of salmon production in Atlantic Canada. Large-scale salmon production started in the province more than 40 years ago.
There’s still room for growth but fish farmers may have to look somewhere else apart from the sea.
“From a marine-based perspective, the area is pretty saturated,” Farquharson commented. “Growth in New Brunswick will have to be post-smolt facilities in land-based systems… so we can grow, and make better use of our existing marine farms.” She refers to the latter as “boundary amendment.”
“There may be some farms that we will be able to make bigger as we use other farms less and less,” she explained. “…Boundary amendment simply means we incorporate a larger area to farms we find more efficient than others.”
Such a move would be a large undertaking for salmon farmers. It will be much like building a new farm and going through a new round of environmental assessments and regulatory processes both provincially and federally. Will producers go for it?
“It is a big undertaking. I can’t speak for all producers, but they are always looking to the future,” said Farquharson.
Environmental activists have hurt the reputation of farmed salmon in this part of the world but another scientific investigation has confirmed what salmon farmers have been saying all along – salmon is environment friendly. In fact, it’s better than even the most sustainable animal protein farmed on land, chicken, says a new study from a Washington, DC-based institution.
“Many other people have found the salmon results surprising. Unfed mariculture, like oysters, has generally been recognized as resulting in low emissions and resource use compared to other foods, but few people seem to think of salmon as having environmentally sustainable attributes,” Jessica Gephart, Assistant Professor, Environmental Science at American University, told Aquaculture North America.
She and her study team looked at how much “blue foods” (fish and other aquatic foods) contribute to “stress” on the planet via their emissions of greenhouse gas, nitrogen and phosphorous, and their use of freshwater and land.
The study found that farmed and wild salmonids (trout and salmon) are similar in their CO2 emission, with farmed having 5,101 to 5,410 kilograms of CO2 equivalent per tonne compared to wild’s 6,881.
Farmed and wild salmonids similarly ranked low on the list of the biggest sources of nitrogen and phosphorous, elements that cause algal blooms when in excess. To put this in context, shellfish and seaweed are the lowest on the list – 9th and 10th respectively among 10 named farmed blue food – because they remove nitrogen and phosphorous more than they release. Farmed and wild salmon and trout rank 7th.
The study, published in Nature in September, also found that farmed trout and salmon use the least water and land among the farmed blue foods. Tilapia was the highest user of these resources.
“This is not to say there are no environmental concerns related to salmon farming, but for the environmental pressures we considered (greenhouse gas emissions, nitrogen and phosphorus emissions, land use, and freshwater use) the fact that it is mariculture means low on-farm land and water use and it has become quite efficient at feed utilization, allowing it to perform well compared to many other farmed aquatic foods,” said Gephart.
Farmed salmon is greener than even the most sustainable animal protein farmed on land, chicken, says a new study from a Washington, DC-based institution
Feed production was identified as the source of more than 70 percent of emissions for farmed blue foods, while in wild capture fisheries, the biggest source of emissions is fuel.
Feed has to improve if aquaculture is to reduce its environmental impact, says the study. “We find feed conversion ratios (FCRs)
represent the strongest lever, wherein a 10-percent reduction results in a 1- to 24-percent decrease in all stressors,” said the authors. Innovations to improve FCR could come via selective breeding, genetic improvements and high-quality feeds, the authors suggested.
BY LYNN FANTOM
“
ike in agriculture, lice/pest management is an arms race, but the marine environment makes it even more difficult to precisely hit the target pest and avoid unintended negative effects on general wildlife,” says a new review of delousing methods published by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
To win this battle, salmon producers have quipped themselves with weapons that exploit vulnerabilities of sea lice. It’s an ongoing campaign characterized by international cooperation, advanced engineering, biological scrutiny, and an all-of-the-above approach to tactics.
That’s because these arthropods are an elusive enemy. In the salmon farming environment, they thrive, reproduce fast, and develop resistance to pest management techniques.
“It’s wise to rotate treatment types,” says Dr Anna Solvang Båtnes, an NTNU faculty member and co-author of a number of papers on sea lice management.
Data from the Norwegian Veterinary Institute’s (NVI) Annual Fish Health Report show the use of chemicals to treat sea lice
in Norwegian salmon aquaculture saw a dramatic 80-percent drop in 2019 from 2015, while thermal, mechanical, and freshwater treatments rose.
In a 2021 report from the institute, a new data point emerged: combinations of thermal, mechanical, and freshwater treatments almost tripled. With that comes a need to outfit vessels – especially well boats – with greater efficiency and flexibility.
Sea lice have high reproductive output in a short life cycle – perhaps 16 generations a year – enabling them to develop rapid evolutionary responses. But there are vulnerabilities, as well.
For example, these small parasites (which measure less than 10 mm) don’t tolerate sudden changes in temperature. By 2017, thermal baths became the most commonly used delousing method, said the NVI. Thermolicer and Optilicer populated work boats, barges (with and without their own propulsion), and well boats.
Another weakness: sea lice generally cannot survive freshwater. Around 2015, leading fish farmers began expanding well boat functions to provide freshwater baths.
A third viable method mechanically removed sea lice with water jets. These flushing systems were developed by Flatsetsund (FLS) Engineering and Hydrolicer ®, as well as SkaMik, which also included soft brushes.
Delousing: Pros and Cons
Improvement of these methods has been quite continuous, Båtnes notes. She attributed it to cooperation among manufacturers, well boat companies, fish farmers, researchers, and fish health personnel.
But advancement could occur if limitations are also acknowledged as “different methods have their pros and cons,” says Båtnes.
Thermal baths utilize a machine into which fish are pumped and then passed through a loop where, for about 30 seconds, there is a section of heated sea water between 28° and 34°C. While effective, there’s potential injuries to the fish. Scientists note that it has the greatest mortality rate among non-medicinal methods, and some have raised concerns about causing pain to the fish.
Freshwater baths are gentle on the fish, but some injuries may occur when they are pumped into tubes taking them into the wells. A major downside is the treatment requires five to 10 hours. Scientists are also concerned that sea lice may evolve freshwater tolerance.
Though flushing systems are effective and efficient (certain configurations can treat about 80 tons of fish per hour), loss of scale, gill bleeding, and wounds may occur.
In 2016-17, Nofima conducted an in-depth study of costs related to different delousing methods. It was a comprehensive look at thermal, freshwater, and flushing treatments, as well as feed medical treatments, lasers, cleaner fish, and more.
Researchers modeled costs based on a fullsite treatment of 4,000 tons of relatively large salmon. Flushing was found to be only 30 percent of the cost of freshwater treatments; thermal 36 percent.
The costs of well boats were a key driver in the higher cost of freshwater treatments, which are unique to that vessel. Audun Iversen, one of the researchers, told Aquaculture North America recently, “Rates for well boats are high, as their capacity is limited. Freshwater treatment requires a large boat and is a time-consuming process. Sometimes they must also even travel some distance to refill freshwater.”
Well boats do much more than sea lice treatments. They count and grade fish, then transport them among cages and to processing facilities. Increasingly, they are being designed for dynamic positioning, onboard freshwater generation, energy efficiency, and limited environmental impact.
Since its introduction in 2017, the FLS flushing delouser has been installed on service boats and barges. The FSV Group, a Norwegian service boat operator that services Mowi’s farms in Atlantic Canada, has installed the delouser
on three of the 12 vessels it currently operates.
“As the complexity of farming operations grows, companies are asking themselves, ‘Why can’t we outsource some of this to a specialized contractor?’” says chief executive Arild Aasmyr.
FSV chose the FLS cage-to-cage flushing system, which moves untreated fish from one net pen to another in chemical-free sea water at ambient temperatures. It’s “like a jet stream,” says Lars Georg Backer, head of FLS. Along the way, the fish pass through two flushing units which dislodge the sea lice.
One way the FLS delouser differs from others is its “siphon” effect – a “gentler” method to bring the fish to the flushing area, says Backer. He contrasts it to methods that must lift fish 3-1/2 meters. “They have to blow the fish on top of the boat,” which can mean injuries.
A vacuum ejector pump exerts light pressure of 0.35 to 0.45 bar until the fish reach the two flushing units, where the pressure doubles. Still, it is only one-fifth of the water pressure of an average kitchen faucet.
With such light pressure, each line only consumes about 80 kWh, adds Backer.
Determining the optimal diameter of the pipe presented a challenge to the engineers who have been refining the system for 10 years. “The bigger the diameter, the harder you need to flush the fish,” says Backer. On the other hand, “the smaller the diameter, the stronger the suction required, which is worse for the fish.” After many trials, FLS landed on 250 mm in diameter.
“A good result is not only the delousing effect, but what happens to the fish, including the impact on welfare in weeks following treatment. We experience mortalities at 0.1
percent – and even lower – depending on initial fish conditions, time since last treatment, type of treatment, and the performance of the operation (including crowding),” he says.
The company provides potential customers with detailed audits conducted by seafood industry consultant, INAQ.
Although cage-to-cage flushing systems have been altered to equip well boats, Backer believes it is “a halfway solution,” so the company created one specifically for well boats.
The challenge, however, revolved around the pipelines coming out of the well – because they are 500mm. Flushing with that diameter would require “extreme pressure” and jeopardize fish welfare. The solution involved a rectangular configuration with the same height as the 250-mm line.
“It’s a good solution when it comes to sustainability, both for the fish welfare but also for the environment, like the use of energy,” says Backer.
For well boats, where deck space is at a premium, another benefit is the new offering’s 15-sqm footprint. It will give well boat operators the opportunity to utilize different treatments, such as freshwater and flushing, on the same vessel in their drive to avoid resistance to any one method.
“It is important to make variations in delousing methods,” Backer emphasizes.
The Norwegian Food Safety Authority will now test the commercial suitability of FLS’ “new invention. When it debuts next summer, it will be called FLS Caligus R500: R for the unique rectangular design, 500 for the size of well boat pipelines, and, of course, Caligus for one genus of sea lice – the persistent parasite.
Bad weather?
‘Snow’ matter, oysters have to be harvested!
Distribution arrangement with other farms is rewarding for all involved BY
Glidden Point Oyster Farm was established in Edgecomb, Maine in the late 80s by husband-andwife team, Kevin and Barbara Scully. General Manager Jonathan Turcotte, who joined the company after Barbara had assumed sole control of the company, says the
MATT JONES
farm is known for high-quality bottom-cultured Atlantic oysters.
In 2016, the company was sold to current owner Ryan McPherson, under whose leadership the operations took a more growth-focused approach, expanding operations on their lease sites and their distribution network.
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“Barbara held about 30 acres of lease sites on the Damariscotta River, which has some premiere growing areas,” says Turcotte. “We looked at the whole landscape of the farm and started looking at how to maximize its potential – the landscape and natural geography of the farm and the growing areas, what they have to offer, and then looking at really maximizing what we can get out of it.”
Over the past few years the farm has been improving their seed-growing and retaining practices. Instead of acquiring additional acreage for the farm, they have been converting some leases that had previously only been bottom culture to also have surface-culture capability. This will allow them to raise more juveniles more effectively and reduce mortality rates.
Glidden Point’s operation spans three major sites. They progress naturally as one follows the river downstream. At the most northern site, at the head of the river, lies the company’s eight-acre nursery, stocked with soft mesh bags and oyster grow cages. Turcotte notes it’s the perfect location as it has the warmest water in the river, is very nutrient-dense and has good tidal movement. A few miles south of that lies a bottom-culture site off the shore of a small island, followed by an unused site that will be developed later for surface culture.
“We start up at the top and move them all the way down until they come home to our main headquarters where we have offshore wet storage floats connected to our dock,” says Turcotte. “We get product off the bottom; it comes back to our headquarters where we process it and wet-store it until we bring it to market.”
Today, there are 32 active leases that are approved for scallops in the state (with three more pending approval), up from 17 leases five years ago. Though few of those leases are in commercial production, there is a growing interest.
A factor behind the scallop sector’s measured growth may be its relative newness in the state and farmers are still trying to find their footing.
Dana Morse, extension associate with Maine Sea Grant, says there are a handful of farmers doing interesting work with scallop farming and trying new approaches.
One farmer has placed his cages in extremely deep water to reduce biofouling – a technique Morse says is established elsewhere but is still in experimental stage in Maine.
“In Japan, and in other places where this industry is much more established, understanding the depth of the long line and the depth of the water and how that relates to things like biofouling is much more established,” says Morse.
The company’s headquarters houses a small retail store with a patio where raw oysters are served along with beer, wine and snacks. Unshucked oysters are also sold there.
“That has been another great way for us to bring our oysters, and oysters from other farms, directly to the people.”
Acting as distributor for other oyster farms in Maine started out as a small part of the company’s business. That role has grown since McPherson acquired the farm. The arrangement is a win-win, says Turcotte, as it enables the farms to focus on growing the best product they can.
For Glidden Point, it’s an additional income stream and more: “It’s given us an opportunity over the past couple of years to really focus on making sure that we’re growing our oysters exactly how we want to, knowing that there’s another side of our business that supports everything that we do.”
The company now distributes products from roughly 30 shellfish farmers in Maine –from small to large farms – including farmed scallops and mussels.
Turcotte sees this as a way to help the state’s industry at large, “but especially those that share the same waterways as us.”
Morse hesitates to call that technique a potential game-changer for the sector, but it could be an important consideration for someone thinking about entering the industry.
“Labour is definitely a strong economic component of overall cost,” says Morse. “And of labour, dealing with biofouling is certainly a big component.”
Other scallop farmers are exploring the economic viability of selling only the scallop’s adductor muscle instead of the whole animal
The company sells direct to the customer online, which exploded due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and to restaurants and chef programs.
which would save money on toxicity testing. But as these are fairly new efforts, Morse says that it is “anybody’s guess” whether they will be successful or not.
In Morse’s view, the only thing crucially needed for the sector to grow is time – for scallop farms to find their footing and see if it can be a profitable venture.
“If we can work incrementally on the problems, then the growth will take care of itself,” says Morse.
In advancing shellfish aquaculture at large, more could be done in educating people interested in getting started in the industry, suggested Jonathan Turcotte of Glidden Point Oyster Farm.
“The state is generally very supportive and has a good leasing system” but educating potential farmers, for instance on how to finance a new farm would help. Some don’t even know how to access funds that may be available for startups, Turcotte said.
“I think more can certainly be done to help support that side of people’s businesses who may be great owner/operators of farms but not necessarily have the financial or business savviness to navigate some of those long term, high capital-intensive operations that aquaculture typically is.”
– Matt Jones
“The market that we’re selling into has been a total roller coaster, but we’ve been able to hold pretty steady thanks to that diversification,” he said.
BY JULIA HOLLISTER
They are called by many names: crawfish, crayfish, crawdads and mudbugs; but by any name, their popularity is booming.
According to Samantha Carroll, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board in Baton Rouge, the popularity of US crawfish is growing not just in the US but also in China.
“We saw firsthand just how big of a deal crawfish is in China now during a Louisiana Tourism promotional trip our office took years ago to Beijing,” said Carroll. “They had streets lined with hundreds and hundreds of restaurants, with four-hour waits for people to eat crawfish. Of course we waited and it was quite funny because the waitress assured
us we wouldn’t know how to eat them.
“Little did she know we were from Louisiana and that we’re experts in all things crawfish. My husband and his family have their own crawfish farm in Louisiana.”
Commercial farming of crawfish began in the late 1800s. Prior to that, people were fishing for wild crawfish in bayous and other natural waters in Louisiana.
“Crawfish popularity has grown dramatically within the last 15 years and continues to grow at astounding rates,” said Justin Smith of the Louisiana Crawfish Co in Natchitoches, LA. “When people taste them they have to have them again and again.”
Fame came to crawfish in 1983 when it was designated as Louisiana’s official crustacean.
in ponds and harvested from amphibious
In 2019, Louisiana recorded over 250,000 acres of crawfish ponds and over 1,600 farmers. The state harvests around 150 million lbs of crawfish annually, which contributes a whopping $300 million to the state economy.
Carroll says imports have taken some of the market from US-farmed crawfish.
“You could purchase a $10 pack of crawfish tails from China, but the product probably wasn’t tested properly (because of their lax regulations),” she said. “It could contain illegal antibiotics or additives that have been known to cause stomach cancer. Or you can pay $3-$5 more and support US domestic seafood that is free of any of those mystery additives.”
More than 50 percent of Louisiana’s crawfish aquaculture is practiced in conjunction with rice production because crawfish farming fits well into many existing farm operations, said the Louisiana State University AgCenter.
Besides, rice fields are ideal for growing crawfish because these creatures like the same clay soil that makes rice crops thrive, according to Acadia Crawfish of Louisiana.
The ponds-cum-rice fields harvest two crops. After the rice is harvested, the farmers switch gears to plant crawfish seeds.
Seeds for crayfish are mostly wild-caught. According to Acadia Crawfish, the seeds often come from the Atchafalaya Basin, the largest area of river swamp in the US.
“The 140-mile-long stretch of water is home to hundreds of species, including crawfish. Current estimates are that the basin produces 22 million pounds of crawfish during the commercial harvests,” the farmer said on its website.
The crawfish seed are planted in June. In ideal conditions, they can be harvested in 3-4
Texas crawfish farmer Garett Marcantel says the climate in Louisiana and Texas helps crawfish thrive
months. They can grow to 50 g (1.8 oz) and 2-5 inches long. Typically, medium to large is the best size to harvest.
They are harvested from amphibious boats. Traps are baited with fish and when crawfish go into the trap they are unable to get back out.
“Mud bugs is probably my favorite name,” said Garett Marcantel, owner of Double Bayou Crawfish Company in Anahuac, Texas. “The scientific name is Procambarus clarkii, the ‘red swamp’ crawfish.”
“I am a first-generation farmer and this is my fourth year in production,” he said. “It’s been one hell of an expensive, time-consuming, learning curve but it is a passion I intend to see through in hopes for generational wealth and stability.”
There are 7,000 acres of crawfish farmed in southeastern portion of Texas. Marcantel farms 200 acres. For the farmer, the crawfish season really never ends but from “flood up” (when the fields are pumped with up to 12 inches of water for crawfish to grow) to drain is October to July. Harvesting typically slowly begins in January then picks up from March to May.
Climate seems to be the reason crawfish are limited to certain areas in the Southeastern US. The milder winters to warmer summers suit them well. Louisiana and Texas are known for the red swamp and white river crawfish. There are over 300 different species found throughout
the world and some species of crawfish are found in most rivers and inland ponds throughout the US. Most agree that crawfish live 3-5 years; but 8-10 years is possible.
Louisiana farmers are up against weather and dealing with the constant rise and fall of market pricing.
According to Marcantel, there are not enough words to describe fully the challenges of crawfish farming, but these include
fluctuations in weather: too cold or too hot weather affects them differently; water quality, crawfish densities in a field; equipment failures; insufficient forage crop such as rice, sorghum, sudan grass or natural aquatic vegetation; and invasive aquatic vegetation like water hyacinth and invasive fish.
“On the bright side, the opportunities are endless,” he said. “You get to meet people
from all walks of life so the door is always open for new unexpected things to come.
“The best thing is the joy in bringing my friends and family together each weekend to feast on ‘mud bugs’. My tricks to make them, unlike anywhere else, is to include chili peppers –Habaneros, and Serronos – fresh peeled garlic, Tabasco sauce, olive oil, lemons and two secret ingredients that I can’t share.”
BY JOHN NICKUM
As the first in-person industry event to be held amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Aquaculture America finds the industry appears not quite ready, says columnist
Half-full or half empty? It depends on how you look at it, but visitor numbers at this year’s Aquaculture America saw a 52-percent decline in attendance compared to the previous edition held in February 2020 when COVID-19 was just beginning its assault in North America. All numbers were down at Aquaculture America 2021 (AA 2021), held in San Antonio, Texas from 11-14 August 2021, according to data from organizers US Aquaculture Society,
the National Aquaculture Association and the Aquaculture Suppliers Association. There were 1,035 participants at the event, down 52 percent from 2,157 in the 2020 conference in Hawaii; 433 Abstracts submitted, down 53 percent from 2020; and 38 sessions, down 51 percent from 2020.
But success, like other matters of judgement and opinion, such as beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. As the abovementioned numbers show, AA 2021 was not a major
success; however, it did demonstrate that a respectable conference and trade show for aquaculture can be developed under adverse conditions. The organizers of AA 2021 must be commended for organizing a conference that attracted 1,000+ attendees.
The Plenary Session attracted about 250 registrants. The session featured three student presentations; Dr Carole Engle, the former editor of The Journal of the World Aquaculture Society, offered an overview of the effects of the pandemic on American aquaculture.
A tribute to Joe McCraren, the founder and first Executive Director of the National Aquaculture Association was a nice addition to the routine business of the Plenary Session.
A presentation by the Peterson Brothers, farmers in Kansas who tell the story of agriculture to the general public, were on hand to talk about leveraging social media. Their videos show farmers doing their jobs and having fun. The brothers suggested that aquaculture specialists with talent and a bent for entertainment could use a similar approach for presenting an entertaining, but factual story of aquaculture and the various sub-specialties within the field. I have listened to dozens of plenary sessions kicking off conferences and I find the Peterson Brothers’ presentation as the most unusual and entertaining presentation that I have witnessed. It will be interesting to see if any aquaculturist picks up on their suggestion for popularizing aquaculture and giving the public an accurate set of information about the products produced by fish and shellfish farmers.
Very few presentations were made by experienced senior managers or researchers. Young students served as the presenters for many papers and probably constituted a majority of the total number of presentations. An undesirable effect of presentations being made by unknown speakers with little or no reputation was poor attendance in the sessions. I sat in several sessions attended by fewer than 10 people. A session called “Accumulated Aquaculture Knowledge and Wisdom from Old Coots” attracted a larger crowd of 40 to 50 people. All of the speakers were well known in aquaculture circles; the “old timers” proved that they not only have learned a lot about aquaculture, but they also know how to speak and entertain.
“Diversity and Inclusion in US Aquaculture” addressed the issues surrounding the perspective that US aquaculture is the nearly exclusive domain of white males. A major part of the session was provided by a representative of
the Missouri Conservation Department who discussed their efforts to bring equity as well as equality to the workforce of that department.
A session titled “Is the Next Regulation, the Best Regulation?” also attracted a larger crowd, but did not answer the question. Regulations remain an anathema to fish farmers. While they may understand the environmental, animal health, and consumer safety problems that can be caused by some producers, they continue to chafe at the costs of compliance and often doubt the ability of regulators to understand the problems and the effects of the regulations they promulgate.
Typical conferences have much of their information exchanges conducted by groups of two to five people gathered in the hallways and lounge areas. Old friends and associates find comfortable chairs and settle in to swap information and personal tales. Such hallway conferences were extremely rare at AA 2021. Two factors probably account for the near absence of such conversations: the relatively low attendance by “old friends and associates;” and the absence of comfortable spots to sit and converse. The San Antonio Marriott River Center Hotel and Conference is a modern, technologically advanced facility, but it is also a sterile environment lacking the “comfy” amenities of older facilities. I was able to meet and greet a couple dozen old friends and former students, but not the 100+ I usually meet at national conferences. Did conference attendees receive benefits in keeping with a registration fee of over 600$, hotel room rates of over $200 per night at the conference hotel (Marriott), and $38 per day parking in the dingy hotel garage? Probably not. I heard serious grumbling; especially regarding the hotel facilities and prices. The conference organizers may not have had a choice concerning facilities. Commitments for the conference location and venue were made several years ago, long before COVID-19 became an ugly reality. I do not know why San Antonio and the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center were chosen at that time. I can say, however, speaking as someone who has had the responsibility for site and venue selections for major conferences; I would never have agreed to holding a conference at this hotel and conference center; and certainly not at the prices charged by Marriott.
In summary, Aquaculture America 2021 was a modest success; a relatively small conference and trade show that had several strong points. Given the circumstances and limits imposed by a global health and economic crisis, the Conference Steering Committee, the Program Committee, and the Conference Managers – John Cooksey and Noah Cooksey – are to be commended.
Steven Rafferty
Norwegian salmon producer Cermaq Group has named Steven Rafferty as CEO.
Geir Molvik, whom the group lauded for his “great job in developing aquaculture in Norway and internationally,” will continue to lead the company as CEO until Rafferty takes on the role beginning March next year.
“For the past 15 years at Cermaq, Geir has consolidated Cermaq’s position as a premium salmon supplier in Chile, Canada and Norway. We are very pleased with the job he has done and wish to thank him for the development of Cermaq and the solid results during his period,” says chairman of Cermaq Group, Yasuhiro Kawakami.
Steven Rafferty is currently the managing director of Cermaq Chile, where he started in 2019.
Prior to joining Cermaq, Rafferty had various executive positions in different international aquaculture companies during the last 20 years, as well as CFO and COO in Cermaq Group earlier, said the company.
A scholarship fund has been launched in memory of aquaculture leader and advocate, Kurt Grinnell, who lost his life in a tragic car accident in Washington State in April 2021.
Called Kurt Grinnell Aquaculture Scholarship Foundation, it was established to carry on Grinnell’s legacy by providing financial assistance for any enrolled member of a United States-recognized Tribe who is pursuing or wishes to pursue studies in aquaculture or aquaculture technology, according to a statement from the Northwest Aquaculture Alliance (NWAA) and the National Aquaculture Association (NAA).
The scholarship may be used at any recognized university, community college, technical college, trade school, or other recognized institution or program.
A scholarship fund has been launched in memory of the late Kurt Grinnell, who was CEO of Jamestown Seafood and Aquaculture at the time of his death PHOTO: NWAA
Grinnell, a well-known youth advocate as well as aquaculture champion, was a member of the Sequim, Washington-based Jamestown S’Klallam Tribe – where he was highly regarded and revered as a peacemaker, visionary, and dedicated family man.
He and his wife and business partner, Terri Grinnell, built Jamestown Seafood, a joint venture with the Tribe, into a multi-million-dollar business with 50 employees. In addition to being actively involved with NAA, Kurt served on the NWAA Board of Directors, where he was vice president.
Jamestown S’Klallam Tribal Chairman/CEO Ron Allen says the Tribe has pledged $5,000 toward the Foundation in honor of Grinnell. Those who wish to contribute to the Foundation are encouraged to pledge or write checks to the Kurt Grinnell Aquaculture Scholarship Foundation c/o Northwest Aquaculture Alliance, P.O. Box 8562, Covington, WA 98042.
The Washington State aquaculture community is honoring the life of fish farming pioneer and aquaculture advocate, Dan Swecker, who passed away this past September following a brief illness.
Wanting to see success for the US aquaculture industry, Swecker first entered the sector as executive director of the Washington Fish Growers Association (WFGA), an organization he helped launch in efforts to promote fish farming in the state. In 1993, Swecker became a Washington State Senator and was the vice-chair of the Agriculture and Environment Committee, for a decade.
In January 2019, Swecker retired from the WFGA and became a senior advisor to the Northwest Aquaculture Alliance (NWAA). He was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award in December 2019 for his tireless advocacy of the aquaculture industry.
For Swecker, the aquaculture industry was a means to create jobs, as well as produce affordable, local seafood. Therefore, he fought to streamline the permitting process for both freshwater and marine aquaculture.
“Dan was a true gentleman and statesman who served his country, his community, and the State of Washington with utmost respect,” said former WFGA lobbyist, Jim Zimmerman.
“Everyone who worked with and learned from Dan Swecker knew him to be a man of his word – highly ethical and absolutely generous and kind,” added industry consultant and former president of Stolt Sea Farm Washington, John Forster.
Bill Dewey, director of public affairs for Taylor Shellfish Farms, described Swecker as “an aquaculture visionary, a true gentleman and effective statesman.” If there was legislation Dan thought might harm or help shellfish growers, I could always count on a call from Dan to give me a heads-up.”
Jim Keeton, founder of fish farming tech supplier, passes away Aquaculture lost one of its leaders in September when Jimmie Arthur Keeton of Windsor, Colorado died.
Jim founded Keeton Industries Inc in 1972, and propelled it to becoming a well-known name in farming and aquaculture supplies, biological water treatment, solar aeration, and other new aquaculture industry technologies.
Jim passed away on 1 September after a long battle with cancer, said his son and president of Keeton Industries, Luke Keeton.
“Jim received his undergraduate degree in Fisheries Biology from Colorado State University in 1968 and in 1972, he returned to graduate school at Colorado State University and started Keeton Industries, Inc with his wife Linda that same year.
“A pioneer to many in the industry, Jim proudly served on the board of the National Aquaculture Association for close to 50 years and was still involved in Keeton Industries, consulting alongside his son Luke, second-generation owner. His work took him to many parts of the world which he enjoyed greatly and provided lifelong friendships,” the announcement stated.
He is survived by his wife, Linda, son Luke, daughter Jennifer Rigg and their families.
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