The press release of Kona Blue Water Farms, Inc. states that the company has been awarded a Saltonstall-Kennedy grant from the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for research into alternative protein sources to reduce the reliance on marine proteins in aquaculture feeds. The company is the first integrated marine fish hatchery and open ocean mariculture operation in the United States.
According to the company the project will look at three novel, sustainable sources of protein as a substitute for fishmeal in the diets of Kona Kampachi®, a sashimi-grade, marine finfish grown in waters offshore of Hawaii. The three sources of protein to be studied include: microalgal by-products from biofuels production; a single cell protein made from food processing water; and, a Fish Protein Concentrate filtered from the wastewater of fish processing plants.
The information revealed that Kona Blue will substitute these various protein sources at different ratios into the Kona Kampachi® diet for the study. Then it will compare growth rates, food conversion ratios and product quality to that of fish fed their standard commercial diet. Neil Anthony Sims, co-founder for Kona Blue, said that this research addresses the fundamental challenge of developing marine fish diets that are both scalable, and sustainable.
Jennica Lowell, Research Manager for Kona Blue and Principal Investigator for the project, informed that by using by-products from other processes, one can re-use resources, rather than deplete them. The research work is projected to begin by July this year. Results from the study will be shared with academics, industry, and the environmental and conservation communities through conference presentations and peer-reviewed publications.
