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Background on the Operations past three years on its design known as the “Pod Grow-
The following sections compare the financial feasibility of ing Unit.” Premier raises tilapia in RAS facilities that are
Ocean Fish Farming and RAS based on two companies: linked to plant tanks producing lettuce, herbs, peppers
Hukilau Foods and Premier Organic Farms. and tomatoes as its core products. Premier tilapia is fed
an all-natural, nutritionally balanced diet of organic grain
Hukilau Foods began as the Hawaii Offshore Aquaculture and protein. Premier Organic Farms does not use antibiot-
Research Project (HOARP). In 1999, Randy Cates took ics or chemicals, nor does it use hormones.9 Premier plans
over the operation and it became the nation’s first com- to build commercial Pod Growing Units near strategic
mercial open-ocean aquaculture farm in 2000. 3 In 2006, markets across the United States over the next five years,
the HOARP project was found to have “grossly polluted” with further expansion worldwide as demand dictates. The
the seafloor, “severely depressed” certain types of sea life calculations used in the following comparison are from the
and “drastically changed” the ecosystem.4 In 2006, Cates Memphis operation, which is currently under construction.
entered into an agreement with Visionary, LLC, to form the
company Grove Farm Fish & Poi, LLC.5 The ocean lease
was transferred to this company in 2007 and the farm was What You Can Get for $13 Million
renamed Hukilau Foods.6 Hukilau now plans to expand its Because the existing ocean fish farms in Hawaii are private
production and lease site, and the numbers here reflect the ventures, their financial records are not accessible to the
upcoming expansion. The Environmental Assessment for public. Therefore, the total amount required to fund one
this expansion was approved in July 2009.7 farm is unknown. However, we do know that $13 million
is being invested in the expansion of Hukilau Foods.10 This
Since the 1980s, the University of the Virgin Islands (UVI) number does not account for the money invested in start-
Agricultural Experiment Station in St. Croix has been ing HOARP or Cates International.
conducting research on RAS. Much of the UVI research is
conducted using a commercial-size RAS that incorporates One RAS aquaponics operation modeled on the UVI sys-
aquaponics. Through years of research, the staff at UVI tem and producing 11,000 pounds of tilapia and 37,800
has established an aquaponics RAS that is made of easily heads of lettuce per year, can be started with $40,490 (not
procured material and is simple and efficient to run. Using including labor costs).
an eighth of an acre for production, the staff raises fish
and produce that is sold at a store on campus. The system
includes four fish tanks, six hydroponic tanks and filtration Recirculating Aquaponics
Ocean Fish Farming
tanks to support good water quality and growth for both Derived from
Derived from the
the fish and plants. University of the Virgin
Hukilau Foods
Islands Experiment Station
Premier Organic Farms, which is based on the model
created at UVI, combines organic growing practices in Number of
1 321
controlled ecological environments as the basis for their operations
state-of-the-art, eco-friendly aquaponics farming opera- Total 3.53 million pounds of fish
5 million pounds of
tion, which can run anywhere in the world.8 The company production
fish
12.1 million heads of
has done extensive research and development over the per year lettuce
Lettuce and other vegetables growing in RAS aquaponic tanks at UVI, courtesy of Dr. James Rakocy at the University of the Virgin Islands in St. Croix.
1
Information drawn from: Aquaculture Planning & Advocacy, LLC. “Final Environment Assessment: Proposed Expansion of Hukilau Foods Offshore Fish Farm, Mamala
Bay, Oahu, Hawaii.” July 29, 2009. Sales, Jobs, Fish Production and Initial Capital Investment at p. 22; Space Used at 8; Water Use at 3 (volume of cages) and 28 (current
speeds) with calculations conducted by Food & Water Watch for gallons of water based on volume of cages. 1 cubic meter = 264.172052 U.S. gallons
2
Information provided by Susan Bedwell, CFO, Premier Organic Farms, September 15, 2009. Information on file at Food & Water Watch.
3
$13 million is the investment that the company plans to make, as quoted in Aquaculture Planning & Advocacy LLC, Op cit. This figure does not include the money that was
invested in starting up the Hawaiian Offshore Aquaculture Research and Demonstration Project, or Cates International, the predecessors of Hukilau Foods. $13 million does
not necessarily represent the money that would be needed to start Hukilau Foods from scratch.
4
This is a generous calculation. Hukilau Foods projects a total wholesale value of $20 million when the operation at full capacity, but it does not actually plan to reach full
production until year three. $7 million would be the maximum revenue possible after recuperating the $13 million investment if the company did reach $20 million in
sales that first year (a lower revenue is actually expected). Plus, because financial figures prior to this expansion were not available, this calculation does not figure in the
financial status, or debt, Hukilau was in prior to this expansion.
“Real” Costs of Ocean Fish Farming
Ocean fish farming is dependent on natural resources.
Because of this, any economic discussion of the industry
needs to also account for the costs of environmental pol-
lution and resource extraction. In other words, in addition
to the basic financial comparison of costs and revenues
(detailed in the sections above), we should also consider
other environmental and social externalities without an
easily quantifiable price. For example, what is the cost of
ocean pollution? What are the economic effects of fish
escapes on wild fish populations? Questions like this ad-
dress less obvious costs that do not have an easy-to-name
dollar value.