According to the information a Honolulu startup company’s plan to build the nation’s first tuna farm in waters off the Big Island has been approved by the Hawaii regulators. Hawaii Oceanic Technology aims to create an environmentally friendly open ocean farm for bigeye tuna, a favorite source for sushi and sashimi that’s overfished in the wild. It is told that this project would also be the world’s first commercial bigeye farm.
The state Board of Land and Natural Resources voted in favor of Hawaii Oceanic giving them the permission to install three large underwater cages for the tuna. Board member John Morgan, who voted in favor of the project said that this could minimize overfishing of tuna. Unlike many tuna farms around the world which capture immature tuna and fatten them until they’re ready for harvest, Hawaii Oceanic expects to artificially hatch bigeye at a University of Hawaii lab in Hilo.
Hawaii Oceanic expects to avoid the disease problems that have plagued other fish farms because it’s ocean pens will be large and its fish won’t be as densely packed in the cages. It is informed that new farm is expected to produce 6,000 tons of bigeye a year once fully operational, serving Hawaii, the U.S. mainland, Japan and other parts of Asia. In 2007, fishermen caught 224,921 tons of wild bigeye in the Pacific. Hawaii Oceanic projects it will generate $120 million in annual export revenues, more than six times the value of Hawaii’s current aquaculture output.
Rob Parsons, a board member of the environmentalist group Maui Tomorrow, said that the project won’t be sustainable if it imports its feed and exports about 90 percent of its product. He added that this project will suffer from the same pollution and disease problems as cattle farms. Several board members said they were concerned that Hawaii Oceanic planned to use solar and ocean thermal energy to operate its giant ocean pens, something that hasn’t been done before.
