Sandy Neil

Reef relief

Kvarøy Arctic is supporting two projects, repopulating endangered coral and helping to feed a community hit by disaster

BY SANDY NEIL

Norwegian salmon farmer Kvarøy Arctic is support of a more diversified, equitable, and climate-change resilient food system through its contribution to two aquaculture projects in a not-for-profit initiative.

Kvarøy, a third-generation Atlantic salmon farm on the Island of Kvarøy along Norway’s Arctic Circle, is underwriting two separate grants in the budding World Central Kitchen (WCK) Food Producer Network programme. The grants will provide vital support for two aquaculture projects: Coral Vita in The Bahamas and Tilapia de la Faja in Guatemala.

“World Central Kitchen is a nonprofit organization founded by Chef José Andrés that uses the power of food to nourish communities and strengthen economies through times of crisis and beyond,” explains Mikol Hoffman, Director of WCK’s Food Producer Network.

“[It] has created a new model for disaster response through its work helping devastated communities recover and establish resilient food systems. WCK has served more than 50 million fresh meals to people impacted by natural disasters and other crises around the world in countries including The Bahamas, Indonesia, Lebanon, Mozambique, 32

Venezuela, and the United States. “WCK’s Food Producer Network was launched in Puerto Rico in September 2018, when our immediate goal was to help our food producers revitalize their operations after the catastrophic damages suffered from hurricanes Irma and María the year before. Today we are looking beyond disaster recovery and to the future of food systems as we help our grantee partners in Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, The Bahamas, and Guatemala contribute to a system-wide increase in food production capacity and food security, over and above pre-hurricane levels.”

Kvarøy Arctic’s support was inspired by the words of its CEO Alf-Gøran Knutsen: “Quality

Left: Alf-Goran Knutsen Above and far right: Tilapia de la Faja Above right: CoralVita Founders

Photo: CoralVita

of life for the world’s children in 2050 depends on our decisions today. Every decision we make must stem from a deeply rooted commitment to protec� ng the planet for future genera� ons. There’s an old saying, ‘We do not inherit the world from our parents. We borrow it from our children.’ This is the tenet from which all of our ac� ons are based.”

Jennifer Bushman, Kvarøy Arc� c’s Strategic Development Offi cer, says: “Suppor� ng organisa� ons that build resilient food systems in the face of climate change is an important part of our advocacy work. We feel that by helping to rebuild communi� es a� er natural disasters that we are be� er preparing them to be self-suffi cient in good � mes and in bad. We suggested an aquaculture track to World Central Kitchen for their Food Producer Network and, with them, launched their fi rst programme in support of aquaculture. We are hoping that others will dive in with us!”

She adds: “We believe in the importance of suppor� ng a diverse array of projects to benefi t the health of our oceans and our communi� es globally. Aquaculture isn’t a well-known industry in the Caribbean and we believe our support through this WCK program will help grow the industry for the benefi t of us all.”

Based in the Bahamas, Coral Vita is the world’s fi rst commercial land-based coral farm.

“Coral Vita was founded to preserve coral reefs for future genera� ons,” its Co-Founder and Chief Reef Offi cer Sam Teicher told Fish Farmer. “Half of coral reefs are dead and over 90% are on track to die by 2050. This is not just an ecological tragedy, but a socio-economic catastrophe, as reefs sustain 25% of marine life and the livelihoods of up to one billion people, while powering tourism economies and sheltering coastlines from storm surge.

“The best thing to do for coral reefs is to stop killing them, which requires our poli� cal and industrial leaders to meaningfully act to solve for climate change, habitat destruc� on, overfi shing, and pollu� on. Un� l that happens though, adapta� on solu� ons like coral reef restora� on must be radically transformed and upscale, which is why Coral Vita was founded.”

Coral Vita is dedicated to maintaining and re-growing coral reefs incorpora� ng breakthrough techniques for growing coral up to 50 � mes faster, while boos� ng resilience against warming, acidifying oceans. The original farm was mostly destroyed by a 17� storm surge due to Hurricane Dorian.

A� er focusing on humanitarian aid in the a� ermath, Coral Vita is returning to its core mission, sustaining the ecosystems that support the local community and help protect it from the threat of increasing storms.

Through the grant, Coral Vita will invest in cri� cal infrastructure for its project including a heat pump system, a heat exchange system, and a UVC fi lter, all of which are necessary due to the compromised water table from recent hurricanes. These innova� ons will allow Coral Vita to increase its eff orts from growing hundreds to over ten thousand coral fragments and build capacity for local jobs and tourism.

“The support of WCK and Kvarøy Arc� c has helped us rebuild our farm even be� er than it was before the devasta� on of Hurricane Dorian,” says the other co-founder Gator Halpern. “We’ve been able to scale our opera� ons and increase the effi ciency of our coral farming infrastructure to further benefi t the reef ecosystem and community of The Bahamas.”

The second aquaculture project to gain WCK support is Tilapia de la Faja in Guatemala, in an area that was impacted by the erup� on of the Fuego Volcano in 2018. The organic � lapia farm was founded three years ago by seven young entrepreneurs and produces a new source of food and employment for a growing community. With this grant, Tilapia de la Faja is building seven new � lapia ponds and implemen� ng the use of oxygenators facilita� ng year-round produc� on and a steady stream of protein. Currently, the farm is supplying fi sh to fi ve communi� es within their municipality. The growth of produc� on will drama� cally increase their impact, allowing them to reach 45 communi� es with an uninterrupted supply of fresh, organic � lapia.

A spokesperson for Tilapia de la Faja told Fish Farmer: “With this support we will have nine tanks in total, that will allow us to grow Tilapia year round. This is huge as the � lapia is one of the only local sources of protein in our community that will now be readily available all year. We hope to become self-sustainable a� er this grant. We’re projec� ng 400% growth. Before the grant, we were farming about 1,500 pounds of � lapia. Long term, we’re looking at diversifying beyond � lapia into other species of sustainable seafood.”

Next up for Kvarøy Arc� c is its land-based farm: a “stunning fl owthrough system on the northern coast of Norway,” says Jennifer Bushman. “This farm will be supported by our feed model, the Kvarøy smolt hatchery and our processing rela� onships. There will even be a biofuel based wellboat—only the second ever put into produc� on! All of this will be up and running by late 2023 if all goes as planned.” FF

“This is not just an ecological tragedy, but a socioeconomic catastrophe”

running by late 2023 if all goes as planned.”