Sunday, Feb. 22, 1:30pm EST
Saving power
Three years ago, Adsorptech's Jim Flaherty had a feeling his products would be helpful for the fish farming sector and traveled to Aquaculture America, held in Las Vegas that year.
Now, oxygen industry expert Flaherty knows his hunch was true -- he has clients from Israel to Washington state for his EcoGen model oxygen VSPA (vacuum swing pressure adsorption), which Flaherty told IntraFish is the most cost-effective and reliable source of oxygen for a RAS fish farm.
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Sunday, Feb. 22, 11:30am EST
They are titanium
California-based AquaLogic is turning up the heat -- literally.
The company, teamed with Oceans Design, works in heating and cooling systems for saltwater environments, as well as self-cleaning tanks.
The heating and cooling systems utilize titanium, which AquaLogic President and CEO Douglas Russell told IntraFish "won't corrode or rust, it's the best material to use."
On the tank end, the company's Michael Paquette said his customers, both in the United States and in Mexico and Chile, mainly use it for yellowtail farming, although he said it would be beneficial for any species.
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Saturday, Feb. 21, 3:30pm EST
The net pen hurdle
Maine Aquaculture Association head Sebastian Belle said net pens "have been the pointy end of the spear" for US aquaculture standards and USDA's Miles McEvoy said they would be the biggest hurdle the industry would face on the way to having a standard.
"It's very clear one of the most controversial things ... are net pens," Belle said.
Still, if net pens are tossed aside for just RAS facilities, it would be like having "an underwater dairy farm" that pumps in air, he said.
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Saturday, Feb. 21, 2pm EST
Speak up for organic!
USDA's Miles McEvoy urged the aquaculture industry to be more vocal about its interest in an organic aquaculture standard.
"It doesn't hurt for the industry to say 'Yes, we want this,'" he said. "That's the challenge with aquaculture -- there's not a lot of advocates [in the government]. They see it as a potentially controversial area."
Still, he expects the standards to be out of the clearance stage they are currently in by April or May and published by late summer.
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Saturday, Feb. 21, 9:45am EST
Learning from Maine
As IntraFish sister publication Fish Farming Internationalhas reported, Maine is doing much better than the rest of the United States when it comes to growing aquaculture.
Sebastian Belle, executive director at Maine Aquaculture Association (MAA), said the state has doubled one processing plant, building a new one in fall and building a packing plant in spring, as well.
"It's not complicated, it's very basic stuff," said Belle, who jokingly opened his presentation at the Aquaculture Industry Coalition meeting with a slide that said "It's not rocket science, stupid, it's farming."
The state has also turned around its permitting lag time from four years to about six months. In fact, Belle said, two of the state's newest fish farmers have moved to Maine from the European Union "because it's easier to farm in Maine."
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Saturday, Feb. 21, 9:30 a.m. EST
Shrimp farmer shares secrets
How can the US shrimp aquaculture industry grow?
By bringing it indoors, says longtime shrimp farmer Russ Allen.
"If we're going to expand, it's going to have to come from indoor shrimp farming," he said. "My goal is to produce shrimp on a commodity level and compete with the world."
The drawbacks, he said, are cost-related. If done properly, shrimp farming in the US needs to be done on "a big scale," Allen said, "which means its an expensive project to get started."
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Saturday, Feb. 21, 9 a.m. EST
Harvest Select looks beyond catfish
Alabama-based vertically-integrated catfish grower Harvest Select is looking to move into other species, President Randy Rhodes said.
Rhodes said the company is looking at tilapia and hybrid striped bass; in fact, Harvest Select is planning to test tilapia this summer. Carp is also on the target list, he said.
"We're looking at how we can make it a one stop truck stop," Rhodes said of his company. "We want to minimize the truck load and maximize the delivery to the customer."
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Saturday, Feb. 21, 8:30 a.m. EST
China demands soybeans
Soy Aquaculture Alliance Board Member Greg Peters made a surprising statement at the Aquaculture Industry Coalition meeting.
"In five years, if demand continues, China's soybean demand will exceed what the United States, Brazil and Argentina can produce," he said.
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Saturday, Feb. 21, 8 a.m. EST
On the CUSP
Steve Hart, executive director of the Soy Aquaculture Alliance, gave an update on the Coalition for US Seafood Production (CUSP) activities during the past year, saying coalition members have had several visits to Washington, D.C. and met with congressional staff and cabinet members.
CUSP is now working with the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy to "continue advancing some aquaculture project concepts," Hart said at the 11th annual Aquaculture Industry Coalition meeting held at Aquaculture America.
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Saturday, Feb. 21, 7:30 a.m. EST
Aquaculture Bootcamp
Laura Tiu and Estefania James were on hand from Ohio State University (OSU) to speak about the College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences' Aquaculture Bootcamp, which aims to increase fish farmers in Ohio and surrounding Midwestern US.
Created from a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) grant, it aims to have students "have all of the fundamental concepts and get started in the business" after just one year, James told IntraFish.
"It's a very comprehensive program," Tiu said, adding that the university recruits about 25 students per year, some who drive up to six hours from northern Indiana. Many are crop farmers looking to expand their scope, Tiu explained.
James said about 50 percent of graduates of the program are now fully immersed in doing something in the industry.
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Friday, Feb. 20, 3:30 p.m. EST
Crawfish is king
Louisiana is home to quite the diversity of fish and shellfish species, according to the Louisiana State University (LSU) AgCenter.
By far the top-produced seafood species is crawfish; about 225,789 acres in the state is devoted to crawfish and there are 1,286 producers with an estimated production of 127.5 million pounds valued at $172 million.
Coming in a distant second are oysters. There are about 903 producers in Louisiana producing an estimated 1.7 million sacks of oysters valued at $41.6 million.
Alligators are more lucrative -- there is a production of 1.3 million feet of hides valued at $77.3 million.
A southern staple, catfish, is has 6 producers utilizing about 523 acres to produce 1.4 million pounds, valued at $1.4.
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Friday, Feb. 20, 1:15 p.m. EST
Beer waste is good for fish
Forget fishmeal -- Colorado-based Nutrinsic has a more sustainable and stable solution: Wastewater from breweries and other food and beverage companies.
It's a win-win, the company's marketing manager, Meagan Wairama, and Chris Wilcox, VP of sales told IntraFish.
The companies allow Nutrinsic to take the waste free of charge and don't take any of the sales of the company's ProFloc feed.
The big news for the company -- it is gearing up to open its new facility this spring, and Wilcox said they are "co-located with a very large beverage company" in Trenton, Ohio. The company was not allowed to name which company, however, the MillerCoors Brewery is the largest of its kind in the city.
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Friday, Feb. 20, 11:30 a.m. EST
25 by '25
Sean O'Scannlain, president at Fortune Fish & Gourmet, asked each player in the seafood industry to join together to increase US consumption -- specifically for "25 by 2025" or 25 pounds of seafood per person annually by the next decade.
"There is currently a real epidemic of omega-3 deficiency in the US," said O'Scannlain, who has been a longtime supporter of US aquaculture, during his plenary speech.
"Aquaculture is the answer," he said.
"As you spend the next couple of days together, ask yourself what you can do to move the aquaculture industry forward not only in science, but in policy, food security and most importantly, consumption."
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Friday, Feb. 20, 11 a.m. EST
Looking rosy for tilapia
Tilapia aquaculture is taking off -- especially in places such as Nepal and Mexico, University of Arizona-based tilapia expert Kevin Fitzsimmons said during a panel at Aquaculture America.
"[Nepal] wants to grow their own fish instead of taking it from India," he explained. "And Mexico has seen a really rapid growth in tilapia aquaculture."
Nearly half of registered aquaculture licenses in Mexico -- 4,600 out of 9,000 -- are for tilapia aquaculture, he said.
Since it imports about 90 percent of the tilapia it consumes, the US still has catching up to do -- Fitzsimmons said last year, imports of tilapia decreased while production increased.
"That's good," he said.
Overall, it's the second-most consumed fish at about 600,000 metric tons consumed valued at $1.1 billion.
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Friday, Feb. 20, 10:30 a.m. EST
Worms as feed?
Florida Keys Community College freshman Tim Yakubowski, with the help of his professor Michelle Walsh, found that white worms could be used in aquaculture to provide efficient feed.
The worms can survive up to 60 days underwater, so fish have longer to eat them, Yakubowski told IntraFish.
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Friday, Feb. 20, 10:10 a.m. EST
Algae grower breaks into aquaculture
Algae.Tec Business and Operations Director Tray McConchie said the algae grower is looking to break into the aquaculture industry.
"We can grow high-quality algae at a high rate," he said of the Australia-listed company, whose US headquarters are near Atlanta.
The company, which McConchie told IntraFish is just a few weeks from certifying the algae as organic, hopes to work with aquaculture feed companies to make feed from its algae. It previously has experience using algae for nutraceutical companies.
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Friday, Feb. 20, 10 a.m. EST
Aquaculture Systems Technologies looks ahead
New Orleans-based Aquaculture Systems Technologies has changed ownership -- it was purchased by Malone Industries just last week, said the research and technology department's Tim Pfeiffer.
"The new vision is to improve product," Pfeiffer told IntraFish at the show.
"We need to grow, so how are we going to grow? We haven't had brand-new products in 15 years, so we need to look at streamlining our products and enhance what we have."
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Thursday, Feb. 19, 9:30 p.m. EST
LSU making most of funding
Louisiana State University (LSU) Agricultural Center's Aquaculture Research Center has received funding from the USDA for its farming ventures, including crawfish, alligator gar and alligator.
Stay tuned for more coverage on LSU and all the news from Aquaculture America as the show begins on Friday.
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Thursday, Feb. 19, 9:00 p.m. EST
Ready to start
It's chillier than usual two days after Mardi Gras in New Orleans, but most show participants have arrived and the show is ready to begin on Friday.
