March 10, 2008
Gone fishing | Maine's aquaculture industry relies on technologies both simple and complex to compete on a global scale
By Peter Mcdougall
The aquaculture industry in many ways mimics the rise of modern agriculture. Building bigger and better tractors helped increase agricultural productivity, but so did improvements in techniques like crop rotation and selective breeding. The same can be said of aquaculture, where changing what the fish are fed and when they are sorted is just as important as developing the machines that perform the feeding and sorting.
For this reason, Sebastian Belle, executive director of the Maine Aquaculture Association, a trade group in Hallowell, finds it interesting that any discussion of aquaculture technology always "focuses on the equipment rather than the techniques."
Indeed, innovative technology in the form of revised methods and techniques have done much to turn around an ailing aquaculture industry in Maine over the last few years. "Maine aquaculture has radically changed the way we farmed fish," says Belle. "We took a bunch of pages out of the organic farming playbook and starting looking at things from the point of view of the animals."
According to Belle, the industry had no choice. He says it had gone from "a viable industry employing 1,200 people to one employing only 100. It was a huge slowdown."
The decline was a result of problems ˆ both real and perceived ˆ associated with negative environmental impacts. Disease was rampant in the confined pens used by fish farmers, which led to the overuse of antibiotics. The high numbers of fish produced large plumes of waste that upset the balance of local ecosystems. Escaped fish not only hurt the farm's bottom line, but also interfered with wild populations. These were consequences of scaling up aquaculture production while at the same time relying on equipment to resolve issues, rather than rethinking techniques.
The Governor's Taskforce on Marine Aquaculture in 2004 charted that same slowdown. The group's report highlighted a $20 million decline in revenues among aquaculture companies from the late 1990s through 2002, and a substantial reduction in the workforce due to increased automation and a shrinking industry.
"But we have changed the way we do things," explains Belle. "And we are now world leaders in terms of developing environmentally sustainable methods while still being economically viable. We are shifting our approach to avoid the problems before they happen."
The following profiles illustrate how Maine's aquaculture industry has embraced both low-tech and high-tech solutions to the challenges of farming seafood.
Micro Technologies Inc.
41 Main St., Richmond
CEO: Bill Keleher
Founded: 1996
Employees: 11
Product: The company produces vaccines for the global aquaculture industry
Annual revenue: More than $500,000
Contact: 737-2637
www.microtechnologies.biz
Disease has become a major concern for those in the aquaculture industry. In the close confines of fish pens, antibiotics have been the traditional tools of choice. But antibiotics are expensive, and their overuse causes bacterial resistance and other problems in the environment. Biotechnology offers an alternative with the development of vaccines.
"Pathogens are always a concern whenever you are farming animals," explains Bill Keleher, CEO of Micro Technologies Inc., a Richmond-based developer of vaccines and provider of veterinary and health screening services. "Here in North America we are doing a much better job than other places in terms of keeping pathogens under control. The amount of antibiotics we use is infinitesimal since we developed vaccines."
Founded in 1996, Micro Technologies' staff of 11 provides diagnostic and support services to aquaculture farms throughout the nation. The vaccines are an important step toward preventing disease outbreaks, but Keleher explains that Micro Technologies also works with the farms to identify the source of a problem in the event of an outbreak.
Biotechnology, in this case, is used to boost the natural defenses of a fish in order to avoid the need for additional treatment. As Belle puts it, it reflects an overall shift in the industry towards "working with natural systems rather than seeking to dominate them." Letting the natural systems do all of the work takes that concept one step further.
Harmon Brook Farm
PO Box 373, Canaan
Owners: John and Dianne Whalen
Founded: 1988
Employees: Two
Product: The company grows baitfish, including rainbow smelt, in 22 freshwater growing ponds
Annual revenue: More than $70,000
Contact: 474-1215
Bulrushes, algae and naturally occurring microorganisms can do much of the work that mechanical filters and pumps do, but as John Whalen, co-owner of Harmon Brook Farm, explains, that kind of natural technology poses its own challenges. "It's a much more difficult tool to use than a machine," he says. "You can set the dials on a machine and leave, but you can't do that with our ponds."
Whalen's 22 freshwater growing ponds in Canaan each represent an isolated, miniature ecosystem in which his freshwater baitfish grow for half the year before they are moved to a holding facility (the Maine winters are too cold for the fish to grow).
Maine aquaculture is primarily marine-based, divided into finfish (95% of the industry's overall revenue of $57 million) and shellfish. Freshwater aquaculture farms represent a much smaller proportion of the overall industry. They are located on land and primarily raise fish for use as bait. Baitfish farms typically raise smaller fish during a shortened growing season, in order to supply the live bait industry at around $5 million a year in sales.
The growing ponds at Harmon Brook Farm hold a variety of baitfish species, chief among them rainbow smelt. On top of learning how to work with the systems in each pond by increasing the aeration or adding nutrients, Whalen also has developed new processes to raise rainbow smelt from eggs all the way through to adults. "There is a tremendous amout of research on rainbow smelt down in the south," he says. "But everything developed down there is different from up here, because of the climate and the shorter growing season."
The company has had to rework and revisit all of the procedures, pioneering new processes that are unique in the state of Maine.
MariCal
400 Commercial St., Portland
CEO: Steven Morrell
Founded: 1996
Employees: 15 in Maine, plus 11 international employees
Product: MariCal's Calcium Sensing Receptor technology aims to improve a fish's transition from freshwater to seawater
Annual revenue: Did not disclose
Contact: 773-2500
www.marical.biz
Different climates and different growing conditions represent a major hurdle to aquaculture production. Not all fish species can be farmed due to the close confines of a net pen, specific nutritional needs or even slower growth rates. And when a fish does lend itself to farming, it often requires specific conditions that make it too costly to grow in some parts of the world.
This presents a serious problem when considering that demand for seafood protein is growing in lock step with the increasing global population. Faced with a plateau in global wild capture fisheries, aquaculture production needs to make up for the shortfall in supply. (For more on this, see "Fish tales," page 28.)
Nevertheless, altering a fish to grow in artificial conditions, either through genetic modification or with hormone treatments, remains unacceptable to the everyday consumer. On the other hand, using a fish's biology to speed up a natural process is much less controversial. For example, the calcium sensing receptors in fish are fundamental to a process called osmoregulation, by which the fish maintains the right balance of salts and other ions within its body and with the external environment.
Portland-based MariCal developed its Calcium Sensing Receptor (CaSR) technology as a mechanism to improve aquaculture production. "Controlling osmoregulation in salmon is able to significantly influence productivity by improving the transition from freshwater to seawater, from the hatchery to ocean net pens," explains William Thomas, chief operations officer at MariCal.
The innovative process involves a closely monitored schedule of food additives ˆ primarily amino acids ˆ that speed up the natural transition period of the fish.
The CaSR technology doesn't just apply to salmon either ˆ it's also effective for other types of marine finfish. For example, Cobia is considered one of the next great, farmed fishes. Yet it has proven difficult to raise Cobia throughout most of the United States since the fish grows best in the warm, salty water of the tropics. By developing a process by which Cobia can grow normally in lower salinity conditions, MariCal has freed aquaculture farms from their tie to the coast and its ready source of salt water.
"We expect CaSR to revolutionize current aquaculture practices," says Thomas. "It is a cost-effective and sustainable alternative to traditional methods of aquaculture, and it addresses many of the challenges facing marine aquaculture."
Moving marine aquaculture to inland farms may be one way to expand the aquaculture industry, but the offshore zone ˆ generally considered to be from three to 200 miles out from the shoreline ˆ remains an important resource for future aquaculture growth as well.
Ocean Farm Technologies
114 Higgins Rd. N., Searsmont
Founder: Steve Page
Founded: 2003
Employees: Three
Product: The company's AquaPod Fish Containment System offers a stronger way of containing farmed fish than traditional submersible nets
Annual revenue: Did not disclose
Contact: 322-4322
www.oceanfarmtech.com
Scaling up production to meet growing demand requires a great deal of space to site the large farms. But these open ocean spaces tend to be in high-energy environments that wreak havoc on traditional net pens floating at the surface. It also becomes increasingly difficult to staff, monitor and protect enclosures that are stationed more than a few miles out to sea. This was the technological vacuum that Steve Page, founder of Ocean Farm Technologies, stepped into with his AquaPod Fish Containment System.
The AquaPod is a fully submersible geodesic sphere ˆ picture the ball that drops every New Year's Eve in Times Square, minus the flashing lights. The innovative design is radically different from the traditional net pens used to farm fish at the surface. It is also very different from existing submersible net technology, which involves nets stretched across an octagonal ring located around a vertical support spar ˆ picture two cones with their bases stuck together.
The design is structurally much stronger than alternative systems, which means the AquaPod has a much better chance of withstanding the elemental forces of the open ocean. Wire mesh panels better protect against predators. "Ours is the only submersible enclosure out there that is predator-proof," Page claims. "We tested it successfully against sharks in the Caribbean."
Submersible enclosures open up aquaculture to deep waters, and deepwater species. "Cod are a deepwater fish so they need deepwater pens," explains Page. "And cod aquaculture is growing very quickly, especially in Norway and Great Britain."
Norway and Great Britain, but not necessarily the United States. Aquaculture still remains the oft-ignored younger sibling to wild-capture fisheries here in the United States. Even in Maine, aquaculture is nowhere near where it could be. Currently the industry falls far short of the $192 million contribution to the state's economy and 1,620 jobs targeted in the strategic plan for Maine aquaculture laid out by the Maine Department of Marine Resources in 1997.
"Whether or not Maine decides to be an aquaculture center is a political decision," says Page.
For this reason, Sebastian Belle, executive director of the Maine Aquaculture Association, a trade group in Hallowell, finds it interesting that any discussion of aquaculture technology always "focuses on the equipment rather than the techniques."
Indeed, innovative technology in the form of revised methods and techniques have done much to turn around an ailing aquaculture industry in Maine over the last few years. "Maine aquaculture has radically changed the way we farmed fish," says Belle. "We took a bunch of pages out of the organic farming playbook and starting looking at things from the point of view of the animals."
According to Belle, the industry had no choice. He says it had gone from "a viable industry employing 1,200 people to one employing only 100. It was a huge slowdown."
The decline was a result of problems ˆ both real and perceived ˆ associated with negative environmental impacts. Disease was rampant in the confined pens used by fish farmers, which led to the overuse of antibiotics. The high numbers of fish produced large plumes of waste that upset the balance of local ecosystems. Escaped fish not only hurt the farm's bottom line, but also interfered with wild populations. These were consequences of scaling up aquaculture production while at the same time relying on equipment to resolve issues, rather than rethinking techniques.
The Governor's Taskforce on Marine Aquaculture in 2004 charted that same slowdown. The group's report highlighted a $20 million decline in revenues among aquaculture companies from the late 1990s through 2002, and a substantial reduction in the workforce due to increased automation and a shrinking industry.
"But we have changed the way we do things," explains Belle. "And we are now world leaders in terms of developing environmentally sustainable methods while still being economically viable. We are shifting our approach to avoid the problems before they happen."
The following profiles illustrate how Maine's aquaculture industry has embraced both low-tech and high-tech solutions to the challenges of farming seafood.
Micro Technologies Inc.
41 Main St., Richmond
CEO: Bill Keleher
Founded: 1996
Employees: 11
Product: The company produces vaccines for the global aquaculture industry
Annual revenue: More than $500,000
Contact: 737-2637
www.microtechnologies.biz
Disease has become a major concern for those in the aquaculture industry. In the close confines of fish pens, antibiotics have been the traditional tools of choice. But antibiotics are expensive, and their overuse causes bacterial resistance and other problems in the environment. Biotechnology offers an alternative with the development of vaccines.
"Pathogens are always a concern whenever you are farming animals," explains Bill Keleher, CEO of Micro Technologies Inc., a Richmond-based developer of vaccines and provider of veterinary and health screening services. "Here in North America we are doing a much better job than other places in terms of keeping pathogens under control. The amount of antibiotics we use is infinitesimal since we developed vaccines."
Founded in 1996, Micro Technologies' staff of 11 provides diagnostic and support services to aquaculture farms throughout the nation. The vaccines are an important step toward preventing disease outbreaks, but Keleher explains that Micro Technologies also works with the farms to identify the source of a problem in the event of an outbreak.
Biotechnology, in this case, is used to boost the natural defenses of a fish in order to avoid the need for additional treatment. As Belle puts it, it reflects an overall shift in the industry towards "working with natural systems rather than seeking to dominate them." Letting the natural systems do all of the work takes that concept one step further.
Harmon Brook Farm
PO Box 373, Canaan
Owners: John and Dianne Whalen
Founded: 1988
Employees: Two
Product: The company grows baitfish, including rainbow smelt, in 22 freshwater growing ponds
Annual revenue: More than $70,000
Contact: 474-1215
Bulrushes, algae and naturally occurring microorganisms can do much of the work that mechanical filters and pumps do, but as John Whalen, co-owner of Harmon Brook Farm, explains, that kind of natural technology poses its own challenges. "It's a much more difficult tool to use than a machine," he says. "You can set the dials on a machine and leave, but you can't do that with our ponds."
Whalen's 22 freshwater growing ponds in Canaan each represent an isolated, miniature ecosystem in which his freshwater baitfish grow for half the year before they are moved to a holding facility (the Maine winters are too cold for the fish to grow).
Maine aquaculture is primarily marine-based, divided into finfish (95% of the industry's overall revenue of $57 million) and shellfish. Freshwater aquaculture farms represent a much smaller proportion of the overall industry. They are located on land and primarily raise fish for use as bait. Baitfish farms typically raise smaller fish during a shortened growing season, in order to supply the live bait industry at around $5 million a year in sales.
The growing ponds at Harmon Brook Farm hold a variety of baitfish species, chief among them rainbow smelt. On top of learning how to work with the systems in each pond by increasing the aeration or adding nutrients, Whalen also has developed new processes to raise rainbow smelt from eggs all the way through to adults. "There is a tremendous amout of research on rainbow smelt down in the south," he says. "But everything developed down there is different from up here, because of the climate and the shorter growing season."
The company has had to rework and revisit all of the procedures, pioneering new processes that are unique in the state of Maine.
MariCal
400 Commercial St., Portland
CEO: Steven Morrell
Founded: 1996
Employees: 15 in Maine, plus 11 international employees
Product: MariCal's Calcium Sensing Receptor technology aims to improve a fish's transition from freshwater to seawater
Annual revenue: Did not disclose
Contact: 773-2500
www.marical.biz
Different climates and different growing conditions represent a major hurdle to aquaculture production. Not all fish species can be farmed due to the close confines of a net pen, specific nutritional needs or even slower growth rates. And when a fish does lend itself to farming, it often requires specific conditions that make it too costly to grow in some parts of the world.
This presents a serious problem when considering that demand for seafood protein is growing in lock step with the increasing global population. Faced with a plateau in global wild capture fisheries, aquaculture production needs to make up for the shortfall in supply. (For more on this, see "Fish tales," page 28.)
Nevertheless, altering a fish to grow in artificial conditions, either through genetic modification or with hormone treatments, remains unacceptable to the everyday consumer. On the other hand, using a fish's biology to speed up a natural process is much less controversial. For example, the calcium sensing receptors in fish are fundamental to a process called osmoregulation, by which the fish maintains the right balance of salts and other ions within its body and with the external environment.
Portland-based MariCal developed its Calcium Sensing Receptor (CaSR) technology as a mechanism to improve aquaculture production. "Controlling osmoregulation in salmon is able to significantly influence productivity by improving the transition from freshwater to seawater, from the hatchery to ocean net pens," explains William Thomas, chief operations officer at MariCal.
The innovative process involves a closely monitored schedule of food additives ˆ primarily amino acids ˆ that speed up the natural transition period of the fish.
The CaSR technology doesn't just apply to salmon either ˆ it's also effective for other types of marine finfish. For example, Cobia is considered one of the next great, farmed fishes. Yet it has proven difficult to raise Cobia throughout most of the United States since the fish grows best in the warm, salty water of the tropics. By developing a process by which Cobia can grow normally in lower salinity conditions, MariCal has freed aquaculture farms from their tie to the coast and its ready source of salt water.
"We expect CaSR to revolutionize current aquaculture practices," says Thomas. "It is a cost-effective and sustainable alternative to traditional methods of aquaculture, and it addresses many of the challenges facing marine aquaculture."
Moving marine aquaculture to inland farms may be one way to expand the aquaculture industry, but the offshore zone ˆ generally considered to be from three to 200 miles out from the shoreline ˆ remains an important resource for future aquaculture growth as well.
Ocean Farm Technologies
114 Higgins Rd. N., Searsmont
Founder: Steve Page
Founded: 2003
Employees: Three
Product: The company's AquaPod Fish Containment System offers a stronger way of containing farmed fish than traditional submersible nets
Annual revenue: Did not disclose
Contact: 322-4322
www.oceanfarmtech.com
Scaling up production to meet growing demand requires a great deal of space to site the large farms. But these open ocean spaces tend to be in high-energy environments that wreak havoc on traditional net pens floating at the surface. It also becomes increasingly difficult to staff, monitor and protect enclosures that are stationed more than a few miles out to sea. This was the technological vacuum that Steve Page, founder of Ocean Farm Technologies, stepped into with his AquaPod Fish Containment System.
The AquaPod is a fully submersible geodesic sphere ˆ picture the ball that drops every New Year's Eve in Times Square, minus the flashing lights. The innovative design is radically different from the traditional net pens used to farm fish at the surface. It is also very different from existing submersible net technology, which involves nets stretched across an octagonal ring located around a vertical support spar ˆ picture two cones with their bases stuck together.
The design is structurally much stronger than alternative systems, which means the AquaPod has a much better chance of withstanding the elemental forces of the open ocean. Wire mesh panels better protect against predators. "Ours is the only submersible enclosure out there that is predator-proof," Page claims. "We tested it successfully against sharks in the Caribbean."
Submersible enclosures open up aquaculture to deep waters, and deepwater species. "Cod are a deepwater fish so they need deepwater pens," explains Page. "And cod aquaculture is growing very quickly, especially in Norway and Great Britain."
Norway and Great Britain, but not necessarily the United States. Aquaculture still remains the oft-ignored younger sibling to wild-capture fisheries here in the United States. Even in Maine, aquaculture is nowhere near where it could be. Currently the industry falls far short of the $192 million contribution to the state's economy and 1,620 jobs targeted in the strategic plan for Maine aquaculture laid out by the Maine Department of Marine Resources in 1997.
"Whether or not Maine decides to be an aquaculture center is a political decision," says Page.
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