Alternative species
Is the tide turning at last for US offshore aquaculture?
Kampachi is King
WHEN Neil Anthony Sims brought his King Kampachi brand to the US market for the first time this spring he could not have hoped for a more enthusiastic response. At the Boston Seafood Expo in March, visitors to the Kampachi Company stand who sampled the premium sashimi grade fish, also known as yellowtail or almaco jack (Seriola rivoliana), declared it the best fish in the show.
This was not only a fitting testament to Sims’s decades-long efforts to pioneer offshore aquaculture, but also a step forward in an even bigger mission.
‘We don’t just want to grow fish, we want to change the world,’ Sims told Fish Farmer, as he waited for news from planning officials about his next project.
Sims has been experimenting with a series of offshore innovations to overcome both technical and possibly greater political challenges. He has trialled ocean bound ‘Aquapods’ off Hawaii, but his current farm, 6km offshore in the Gulf of California, near La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico, is a commercial venture.
The site, not strictly in the ocean, was chosen for its deep, clear waters, strong currents, and proximity to the US market.
Obtaining permits to farm fish in US federal waters is a notoriously problematic process, which helps explain why the States, with the world’s second largest Exclusive Economic Zone, ranks 16 in aquaculture production and still imports more than 90 per cent of its seafood.
There are currently no commercial finfish operations in US federal waters – the zone between three to 200 miles offshore.
Sims has been at the forefront of the campaign to change the law, in order to bring sustainably farmed fish to a much wider market – and address climate change.
‘Initially, we change the way the world sees seafood, but increasing seafood consumption is critical to a more climate friendly approach,’ he said.
‘Look at the work that has been done looking at greenhouse gas and freshwater use and the land use impacts of cattle production.
‘We can’t have nine billion people eating hamburgers the way America eats hamburgers.We need to be able to provide them with something that is highly appealing to the palette.
‘You can’t force people to be vegans, you can’t force people to eat carp – we want to provide them with a desirable alternative to beef.
‘We believe King Kampachi and other marine fish farmed responsibly offshore will offer that potential.’
The Kampachi Company has the capacity to produce 500-600 tonnes a year at its Mexican operation and Sims expects to be harvesting more than 10 tonnes per week by the end of 2019.
The fish are reared in four Polarcirkel style pens, with HDPE rings on the surface, and copper alloy mesh.
Each 10,000 cubic metre pen, 30m in diameter and 17m deep, is independently submersible, with a ballast chamber and ballast weight.
The fish are fed by an air blower unless the pens are submerged, and then a water borne feeder is deployed.
They are nourished on a specialised diet for seriola, from Ewos (part of Cargill) in Canada, which is about 50 per cent agricultural proteins and oil such as corn, wheat, canola, and about 50 per cent fishmeal and fish oil.
Of that 50 per cent, half comes from trimmings, from food grade fisheries, and the other half is from sustainable certified forage fish fisheries, said Sims.
A vessel is stationed out at the farm 24/7 and when the weather is inclement, or when there is a red tide, the cages are submerged and the boat comes into the harbour.
Since the fish were put in the water at the end of June last year, they have had to submerge them very little during the summer months, and perhaps a third of the time during the winter months, said Sims.
“We don’t just want to grow fish, we want to change the world”
The grow-out phase is between nine and 12 months, when the fish will be between 2.2 and 2.5 kilos, and big enough for the US market.
The hatchery is on the other side of the bay, 20 miles away, and the broodstock are in another, separate facility.
Sims said it is all working well and he is ‘very pleased’ with progress. The farm recently underwent an ASC audit and he hopes to make an announcement soon about the result.
‘We believe it is not enough to claim we are doing this responsibly, we want to have third party validation of that.That is important to build consumer confidence in our products.’
His Aquapod trial, the Velella Beta project off the coast of Kona, Hawaii, was named one of Time Magazine’s 25 Best Inventions of the Year in 2012, but it was difficult to scale up.
Sims said:‘We’re going to keep pushing the boundaries but we also want to be able to produce fish at scale.’
One of the major barriers to commercially expanding open ocean aquaculture in US federal waters has been its arduous permitting process.
In 2016, NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Fisheries finalised a rule that would allow commercial aquaculture operations to be permitted in US federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico.
However, NOAA got the authority rescinded after protesters (including Food and Water Watch and commercial and recreational fishing groups in the Gulf) filed suit and a court decision in Louisiana ruled it had no authority over aquaculture, only fishing, said Sims.
‘So, essentially, the Gulf of Mexico fisheries management plan became moot.We are still moving forward - this just means we don’t need a permit from NOAA but are moving forward with our Velella Epsilon project.’
This latest trial involves similar submersible cage technology to the Mexican farm, and will be located in federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico, off Sarasota, Florida. (See box right)
Permits must be obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency, from the Army Corps of Engineers – ‘the conduit for all of the other federal agencies, including NOAAA, who weigh in on environmental impact’, said Sims.
‘We also need a permit from the Coastguard, and from the State of Florida under the Coastal Zone Management Compliance Act.
‘The whole point of the demonstration pen is to demonstrate the permitting process as well as demonstrating the operation of the pen.’
He expects to have the permits by summer and fish in the water by autumn and is optimistic about the future.
He was awarded a $139,000 federal grant to demonstrate the Florida project and said if the results prove favourable,‘we would also hope to pursue a commercial aquaculture permit’.
The tide is turning, he thinks, and the US federal government is recognising the importance of scaling aquaculture offshore.
New legislation to establish a federal system for aquaculture permits has been introduced, by Republican Senator Roger Wicker, of Missouri.
‘There has been increasing recognition from the leading environmental NGO groups;WWF, and Conservation International, and the Nature Conservancy have all come out advocating for an increased production of aquaculture, so long as it’s done responsibly,’ said Sims.
‘And there is an abundance of new scientific evidence – particularly out of the University of California, Santa Barbara.
‘There is a research team there supported by the Packard Foundation and the Moore Foundation and they are coming up with a number of papers confirming the ability to grow offshore aquaculture in an environmentally responsible way. It is very gratifying to see.’
He said there is also work (by Arlin Wasserman of Changing Tastes) showing an increasing receptivity among US consumers towards aquaculture products, particularly offshore aquaculture products.The scope to up-scale is huge.
‘One of the works by University of California Santa Barbara recently showed that if you only go out to 200m deep all over the world but you exclude all of the other areas where there are competing interests – recreational fishing, commercial fishing, oil and gas, navigation, marine reserve areas, and only go out to 200m deep - there is potential offshore to grow 100 times the current seafood consumption over the world.’
King Kampachi is available to distributors through either PrimeTime Seafood (www.primetimeseafoodinc. com) or CleanFish (cleanfish.com).
“We’re going to keep pushing the boundaries but we also want to produce fish scale” at