SOMETHING FISHY John Stieglitz may strike gold with his plan to breed yellowfin tuna.
Runner up: High-Potential Venture $3,000
Carrying a Catchy Tuna Blue Ocean Aquaculture has a plan to sustainably breed yellowfin tuna in indoor tanks an experienced Business Plan Competition advisor warned John Stieglitz that he might have a tough time with the judges. “Phil Needles told me it might be an uphill battle to pitch another aquaculture idea,” recalls Stieglitz, tracing the steps of his notion to breed juvenile yellowfin tuna in indoor tanks. (Fellow graduate students at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, Aaron Welch and Ron Hoenig, won a first prize in the previous year’s competition; their business plan was to cultivate goggle eyes, a costly baitfish prized by saltwater anglers.) Still, Needles (BBA ’91), a former management lecturer who coordi-
nated the competition and was its lead advisor for several years, encouraged a determined Stieglitz to go forward with his idea. Using his degree in environmental science from the University of Denver, his subsequent years working on charter fishing boats and researching fish populations, and his graduate studies in marine affairs and policy at the Rosenstiel School, Stieglitz developed Blue Ocean Aquaculture. “Blue Ocean Aquaculture is focused on the environmentally sustainable production of juvenile yellowfin tuna for sale to existing companies in the capture-based tuna aquaculture business,” Stieglitz says, referring to the global multibilliondollar industry that is akin to ranching. Commercial fleets use giant purse-seine nets to wrap up schools of adolescent tuna in open seas, then tow them back to offshore cages, where the fish spend months or even years being fattened for market. “But these fish often have been captured before they’ve had a chance to reproduce, thereby reducing the seed stock,” Stieglitz explains. “It’s a completely unsustainable way of doing it.” He envisions those aquaculture businesses instead purchasing and raising tank-bred yellowfin from Blue Ocean Aquaculture. As the wild fisheries’ stocks of tuna decline, those aqua-ranchers are seeking a lower-priced and steady supply of juveniles. Blue Ocean would offer them a sustainable, affordable solution by breeding tuna “fingerlings” in huge land-based tanks and shipping them to their offshore sites. “The technology is there, but it hasn’t been applied,” Stieglitz says. While his business plan initially looks at breeding yellowfin fingerlings, it projects breeding bluefin fingerlings in the future. That is important because, while desirable yellowfin tuna can retail for more than $20 per pound, the even more-sought-after bluefin tuna can fetch up to $35 per pound — and reportedly up to $100,000 per fish. The market is ripe, too, which the judges considered an important component of the competition. They obviously appreciated Stieglitz’s depth of aquaculture knowledge, but also his ability to research the market and seek out financial advice. That aspect of Stieglitz’s efforts especially impressed the coordinators and judges, who were excited to see students from other schools successfully getting involved in the competition.
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