KODIAK - Fish farmers may soon lay claim to parcels of the world's oceans, much like pioneers laid claim to plots of land in the unsettled West. Or, as the Oregonian put it: "A dream of seafood visionaries is to have homesteads of fish farm colonies larger than most major cities, with rows of undersea cages brimming with swimming livestock."
The Bush administration is already laying the foundation for offshore fish farming, and legislation is expected to head to Congress this year. The move underscores the government's plan to expand U.S. fish farming fivefold by the year 2025.
Fish farming is developing around the world by about 10 percent a year, but by only 2 percent in the U.S. Proponents call ocean farming a food security issue, saying it could reduce the nation's dependency on imported seafoods. More than 75 percent of all seafood eaten in the U.S. is imported from other countries, many of which have less stringent health protection guidelines.
The new legislation would outline a straightforward process for the Secretary of Commerce to grant exclusive use of the sea under leases that may run 20 years. It would apply to federal waters from three to 200 miles offshore.
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Meanwhile, the future is now in Hawaii. For two years, the nation's first commercial offshore farmers have been busy growing 100,000 fish (moi) in a large cage on 28 underwater acres just two miles offshore from Honolulu International Airport. Under a 15-year lease, the National Sea Grant College Program hopes to expand the project to four cages with harvests reaching two million pounds of moi a year.
The cage, which is about 80 feet wide, is anchored at 140 feet and starts 40 feet below the surface. "It's like a big circus tent pointed down and another one on top of it pointing up. Around the middle is a 12 inch pipe and that's where it all comes together. It has different compartments containing different age classes of fish," said Mike Duxbury of Kodiak, who recently accompanied other divers to the site. Duxbury is a gourmet chef as well as an Alaska State Trooper stationed in Aniak.
A crew of five divers feeds the fish a ton of pellets each day ($100 per ton) from a boat using a simple system of funnels and hoses. "You shovel feed into the funnels and circulating water sucks it down into the different pens," Duxbury said. The same system is used in reverse to harvest the fish. "A diver goes down with a bigger hose, unzips a pen, scoots the fish into a corner and sucks them up right into an iced slurry," he added.
Duxbury said about 3,000 pounds of moi are being harvested every other day. The fish, which average about two pounds each, are sold live directly to local restaurants at nearly $5 a pound.
Duxbury said he saw no piles of fish wastes underneath the ocean cage, and any substances were dissipated by currents. "In fact, it's growing all kinds of things like a reef," he said. He believes offshore farming could work well in Alaska waters, and produce large volumes of fish readily available to major markets on the West Coast and Japan.
Smarten up
Sales of fish oil have soared since a television documentary showed it could help children become smarter. The Scottish Daily Record reports that parents raced to shops to stock up on the capsules after watching a BBC program called "Child of our Time."
The program demonstrated how fish oil helped kids' brains work more efficiently. It found that previously disruptive children, and those whose behavior bordered on the hyperactive, benefited most. The omega 3 and omega 6 oils in the capsules were credited for boosting the children's memories as well as their reading and writing skills. Their general behavior was also far better.
"Some see it as a natural alternative to Ritalin, the controversial drug used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder which has been linked to five deaths in Britain," the Record said.
John McKee, of the Association of National Health Stores, said fish oil is now the top-selling item in his Edinburgh shop. "Sales have at least doubled since the advantages of fish oil came to light in the show. And it's not just people purchasing them for kids, people buy them to combat the onset of dementia and help arthritis."
McKee believes fish oil can help ease some childhood problems. He added: "Many children sufferf rom `brain noise,' a condition which leaves them unable to concentrate. It can be caused by the saturated fats in crisps, chips and chocolate. To counter this, it is essential to have unsaturated fatty acids such as can be found in fish oil."
Kodiak-based free-lance writer Laine Welch can be reached via e-mail at msfish@alaska.com.
