Diving Into Aquaculture
Thursday, April 05, 2007SUSIE GHARIB: It's called the blue revolution -- aqua-culture or underwater agriculture. More and more people are farming the world's oceans for food. But while much of aqua-culture's innovation and brainpower originated in the United States, America may not be reaping the benefits of that effort. Here reporter Joe Collum to explain.
JOE COLLUM, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Fish farming is the newest and fastest growing food production system in the world. No one disputes its importance. The oceans' wild fish population is in severe decline. Some studies indicate three quarters of food fish species have either collapsed or are on the verge of collapse. Seafood comprises 15 to 20 percent of the world's protein source. But commercial fishing catches have been stagnant or shrinking for two decades, while the human population keeps growing.
ROBERT COWEN, UNIV. OF MIAMI, ROSENSTIEL SCHOOL: And at 6.5 billion people, if we drop the amount of protein available by 2 percent, that's equating to several hundred million people going without protein which is starvation.
COLLUM: Aqua-culture is seen by many as the best hope to make up the protein deficit. But commercial fish farming has left an odious footprint. Farms in shallow coastal waters with poor circulation have led to severe pollution and diseased fish. But during the past decade, U.S. companies have developed a Jules Verne type of solution, giant cages shaped like flying saucers and geodesic domes that can be towed miles out into the ocean and anchored to the sea bottom. Up to 15,000 fish can be raised in each cage while strong sea currents prevent contaminated hot spots from waste.
At the University of Miami, Dr. Daniel Benetti is one of the pioneers of offshore aqua-culture. He and his students raise breeder stocks of cobia, a species that has never been commercially fished because it doesn't travel in large schools. Cobia seems to thrive in open ocean farms.
DANIEL BENETTI, UNIV. OF MIAMI, ROSENSTIEL SCHOOL: Clearly, this is the right thing to do. This is a new path to follow. It is food and can be produced in an environmentally sound manner and we are all going to rely on open-ocean aqua-culture. If it's not here, it's going to be from abroad.
COLLUM: Even though most of the new technology for open-ocean aqua- culture has been developed by American companies, only four open-ocean fish farms exist in America, all located within three miles of shore, none in U.S. Federal waters, which extend from three to 200 miles offshore. One reason is a labyrinth of bureaucratic permitting system that requires approval from 19 different Federal agencies to open a fish farm in Federal waters. Last December, Aquacopia Venture Partners became America's first venture capital fund dedicated exclusively to fish farming. Aquacopia hopes to up its stake in fish farming to $30 million by the end of 2007. But managing director David Tze says red tape will likely result in that money being invested in overseas ventures.
DAVID TZE, MANAGING DIR., AQUACOPIA VENTURE PARTNERS: Many farms have started this process and been unable to finish it. I think many others have just decided to not even get going. So that's had a major chilling effect on activity in this area.
COLLUM: A bill introduced in Congress March 12 would streamline the regulatory quagmire by making the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration a one-stop permitting agency. NOAA estimates open-ocean aqua- culture could become a $5 billion a year industry in the United States. Environmentalists and commercial fishermen say the aqua-culture bill does not protect the ocean and plan a vigorous opposition.
REBECCA GOLDBURG, SR. SCIENTIST, ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE: Obviously, if we have large-scale development of poorly controlled farms, it would be a lot like dropping large scale hog or poultry farms into the ocean and that you get large concentrations of animals that produce huge amounts of waste.
COLLUM: Some liken aqua culture to big oil, in that the United States is forced to depend on other countries for the vast majority of its petroleum, and that is likely to remain the case with seafood unless U.S. waters are someday opened up and fish farming doesn't become another industry that got away. Joe Collum, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, Miami.
