Yellowtail farms off SD?

I, for one, fully support this. One of the USA's largest deficit imports is seafood. We import 80% of the seafood eaten here, and the majority of that is farmed somewhere else with lax environmental standards. This project will be done to the highest of standards, with a whole lot of alphabet soup agencies having oversight. It'll be a miracle if this even gets permitted here in CA, the environmental law capital of the world...

Full disclosure...I worked at Hubbs for years and have a masters in aquaculture, so I am biased.

 

They need to catch alot of bait to feed out to the fish , with the bluefin pens in the area south of the border an additional pressure may not be so good for the bait population . It does keep the USA from buying at least some of its seafood from less regulated countries . Seems to me that once it hits the market a demand may be created that will increase the take of the natural population . I can remember not too long ago the Blackened Redfish craze damn near did in that fishery . Hope it works and they don't use genetically modified hatchery fish that would possibly pollute the natural gene pool if they got loose . WR

 

Well, I know HSWRI has been working very hard for at least a decade, maybe more, on utilizing pellet food that results in a lower conversion ratio. That is the amount of fish meal (baitfish) that it takes to raise a pound of farmed fish. For a long time this was a 3:1 ratio, meaning it took 3 pounds of baitfish to raise 1 pound of farmed fish. That obviously results in a net loss to the ocean and is not a good thing. My research is pretty out of date nowadays but I know the conversion ratio is way down to like 1.2:1 (again, no references here just my recent and very occasional reading), and is only getting better every year. There are even pellet foods available that contain no fish meal at all.

This should only lower take of natural populations as more farm raised fish would be available to the market. I don't think it would result in a boom on the take of yellowtail, for example. Existing limits would not change so I wouldnt expect take to trend upward.

They are using locally caught brood stock, just like they do for the white seabass they have been raising and releasing back into the wild. The only genetic enhancements would be from breeding local populations year on year. Meaning keeping healthy fish that were bred from wild broodstock, and breeding those fish. SO its actually a form of natural yet guided gene selection as opposed to what people think of as 'genetic modification', like those done in a lab or test tube.

In any event, this IS California and the oversight will be staggering...

 

Can't wait to see the $$/LB

From what is currently available, the price per pound for regionally local farmed is higher - sometimes significantly higher than the imported product.

I'm also curious to see how much yield (% or quality) will be destined for Asia export

 

Asian carp from the US rivers and a wood chipper ? Maybe they can finally find a market for the invaders as fish food . Maybe a win /win situation . Just thinking about the biomass that seems to have no use . Probably cost prohibitive do to location for our coast but there are Amberjack that inhabit those areas as well and may be able to be farmed . WR

 

Cat food! Said it for years! Why not?

 

Would be a hundred percent behind turning all non native freshwater fish getting pelletized and used for expanded farming of channel catfish, freshwater drum, common carp, buffalo or other widely distributed freshwater fish in North America within their naturalized range, for domestic use or export...

 

I think it would be hard to gather the amount of wild, non native fish species like carp in mass consistently to feed commercial yellows.
I think there could be a good aquaculture industry built here in SD.
If these big business guys were smart they would recruit the local fisherman’s support by pledging a certain % of profits towards habitat restoration or something for wild fish.

 

You say that because you haven't seen the extensive nature of the bighead carp invasion... It's insane...

https://youtu.be/dMyK0QDoREU

 

Every few years these fish farms are proposed off of san diego, not the first time ive seen something like this...
Every few years, first ive seen it was about 10 +/- years ago...

 

I thought there were always issues with the amount of "waste pollution" from these farms? aka fish crap

 

LMB?

 

Fairly natural!

 

If it made economic sense, yes.. but at the point of LMB, probably worth more alive, either recreationally or as human food themselves, sold live or not... Pretty sure they would eat pelletized asian carp too...

 

They could make Senkos out of it!

 

What do you think HSWRI was built on? They have released over 2M WSB for commercial and recreational anglers to catch again.

 

Not in the location proposed. It is 3 miles offshore in deep water with lots of current. The waste pollution is a major issue for salmon farms in back bays and inlets with very little flow/circulation. NOAA is modelling the waste dispersal for this proposed farm, so the science will be unbiased (or it should be).

 

Bass eat strip bait just fine already..