Comments on: Cobia Leave For Panama; Mahi Added to Line-up at UM Aquaculture

By: Melissa Pelaez

Melissa Pelaez — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 02:02:52 +0000

Hello Keagan,

I was not directly involved with the trials but I sent over an email t our nutritionist to find out if we have any papers on that as of yet. I’m sure we have one in the works. If there is anything that I can send over I will definitely reply again so I can send it over. Good luck with your trials… keep us updated.

Cheers!

By: Keagan Halley

Keagan Halley — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:27:50 +0000

Hi there,
I would like to know what your results were with the soy replaced diet on the grow rate of the cobia. I’m about to do some work on formualting a diet that contains soy and chekcing the grow rates at differnet temperatuers. I would really like to see what other people are experiancing. if you have a paper to share that has been publish from your work that would be highly appreciated, thanks.

Kind Regards

Keagan Halley

Principal Environmental Officer
Aquaculture and Socio-Economic Development
Department of Agriculture, Foresty and Fisheries
Fisheries Branch
South Africa

By: Dutch Petro

Dutch Petro — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:45:14 +0000

Melissa,
I applaud your efforts, I really do, I would like you, and others, to consider a few basic points. The day to schedule of life is hectic in todays world. A parent is on the go from the time they are awoke by children saying its breakfast time, until the bedtime story is read and lights go out. If they are lucky, during the mix of the day, they might get a 15 minute pause for a break. Usually even those are cut short by some one banging on the door saying,”I gotta go!” How does this tie into the post you made? It is hard enough to keep current with the days events without a bunch of fish growers wanting these people to stop and learn about the idiosycracies of how a fish is raised. That is not their concern. Their main concern is grabbing a filet at a decent price, getting home in time to cook before the rest of the family invades, hungry and demanding. What you are advocating, most people simply don’t care. Sad, yes, true, even more so.
This responsibility falls on you and me. The people trying to get this industry off the ground. All that it comes down to, is a plastic bag that says product of the US, and people will buy it.There is a great need to stop concentrating on the peripheral politically correct hogwash, and to start producing. There is plenty of technology to support farming safely, efficiently here in the US. Pick a species and at some point in the past 20 years, Bennetti has written a paper on it, or carried out research on how to breed it, raise it, harvest it. What is needed right now is an all out push to the powers that be to get legislation that has been on the floor no less than 8 times, only to be buried back in committee for another 3-5 years. Seafood is our number two imported commodity, you can not get through a day with out hearing oil this, drill that. Every person employed in commercial fishing or aquaculture creates 28 seperate support jobs on shore, wether it be a person assembling scuba gear, to the guy building a boat, or the hundreds of occupations in between. Pilots, drivers, ice, fuel, gear providers, engineers, mechanics. Sit down with a group of friends at a table and track what is needed to produce a fish from an egg. Don’t forget what it takes to catch the brood stock. Follow that fish through its entre life cycle, tracking all the appliannces needed in the proccess until it ends up on some ones dinner plate. Be sure to also include the scrap and waste that can be turned into anything from bio-diesel to fetilizer. Write them all down as you go, when you are finished, take that list to your congressional leaders and show how many votes they could secure through advocating these programs. How many times in the last year have you heard any of this even mentioned by any of the canidates running for president? Half of them have states with borders on huge bodies of waters, the Gulf, Great lakes, the Atlantic. You are expecting consumers to know, when in reality, the people running for office, or holding office currently, have no clue that they are wiping their back side with what could be a trillion dollar industry, employing millions. Fishing? Yeah right.

By: Melissa Pelaez

Melissa Pelaez — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 20:18:20 +0000

I’m an aquaculture student and looking to hopefully stay within the U.S. after I finish my schooling. Needless to say I am also very disheartened to see that aquaculture in the U.S. is so behind. As Ron mentioned, in RSMAS Dr. Benetti and other researchers are working day-to-day to continue developing the kind of technology that will open more doors for domestic aquaculture. I can see how it would be beneficial to have these professors in Washington and up at the state capitals lobbying for aquaculture such as Dutch recommends (and of course they do go up to the capitals when their expert opinion is needed as well as other situations), but our professors are needed at school to do what they do best… delving into improving technology through research and development (the better the technology the easier to push the aquaculture agenda) and of course educating the future aquaculturists so we can get into the industry with a head start and work on making some of these changes happen and effectively run these facilities. We do NEED a stronger and more unified voice which is something that the U.S. Aquaculture industry lacks. We also need some aquaculturists/students to specialize in Marine Affairs and Policy so we can get some professionals in Washington to push the aquaculture agenda. I can say that at least from the RSMAS program more and more students are becoming interested in the regulatory policies that would allow a better legislative framework by which to start projects here in the U.S. One of our own Aquaculture students got recruited to go to Washington last summer. From what I understand this avenue (legislation) was the one less traveled in the past but things need to change fast and given that need more students have been willing to answer that call. It is a frustrating situation but I personally got into aquaculture knowing the challenges that lay ahead and I’m learning what tools I’m going to need handy to help the industry make some moves. As far as consumers go, people are buying farmed fish but I can guarantee that not even 90% of them know when they are eating farmed and when they are eating wild, much less do they know the origin of the fish. I recently wrote a term paper on how to increase market demand for sustainable seafood. One of the most important topics is waking up the consumer conscience from thinking a “fish is a fish” to actually taking an active role in realizing that all fishes aren’t grown the same (nor caught the same) and for their own health as well as for the U.S. economy they have to wake up and “smell the fish.” That falls on us in the aquaculture industry too though. Marketing and outreach is what ultimately creates informed consumers. Informed consumers will create a (knowledgeable) demand. Boston Globe did a good job with the article they posted in October (I believe) on how many fish are incorrectly labeled in restaurants and stores. People think they are eating a snapper for example and in reality it’s not that fish but a completely different one. There needs to be more of that kind of info and investigative reporting in the media, from the government, from schools and research institutions, and from the private sector. Although the situation isn’t exactly rosy I’m a hopeful optimistic and from forums and other online communities I feel that we (aquaculture ppl) are communicating more effectively than in the past and this in turn can generate a louder uniformed voice which is one of the key elements in getting anybody to move on anything here in the U.S.

By: Dutch Petro

Dutch Petro — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:40:57 +0000

As an addendum to my previous statement. The amounts of seafood currently produced in the US fail to give the consumer a choice. Blaming the consumer for the complete lack of progress in moving legislation forward to bolster US production is as irresponsible quote as it is wrong. the consumer is buying almost 5 billion a year in farm raised products, now. The demand is there. It is the effort and production that is lacking.

By: Dutch Petro

Dutch Petro — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:23:05 +0000

Nationwide there are only six active aquaculture facilities producing offshore. Combined they don’t produce enough fish to feed an average county, for more than a week. Overall seafood production in Florida has declined, not increased over the past four years, and that includes inshore and land based systems. Commercial fishing has faced shortened seasons or complete closures on every single commercial species that is considered a food source. The hatcheries that are run by the state are concentrating on recreational species such as bone fish, the universities that have the facilities and personel to spawn and rear finfinfish are selling them overseas instead of trying to augment wild stocks. I have no doubt that Bennetti wants to see aquaculture come to the US in a widespread fashion, what I don’t see, is a concentrated effort to get the state and feds to pass the lehislation to do it. Bennetti is one of the highest recognized, and most respected leaders of marine research period, why he has not gathered his following and clout to raise the arguement and use the attention focused on the gulf, especially in the wake of the BP spill, is beyond anyones reasoning. The amount of money being spent in the aftermath of the spill, going to projects for boatramps instead of wild restocking, and promotion of both creating sustainable offshore projects and commercial fishing is rediculous. I have been heavily involved in the proccess and find his lack of taking advantage of this situation disturbing. I expect him to use his capacity to further this cause. The only thing I have seen him publicly involved and pushing was the aquarium in the panhandle.

By: Ron Hoenig

Ron Hoenig — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:42:12 +0000

We in the UM Aquaculture program are also disheartened by the lack of domestic aquaculture, but are working hard to develop the necessary technologies that might one day be implemented in the U.S. Dr. Benetti has been striving for more than a decade to promote U.S. aquaculture initiatives, but given the general lack of government support and strong opposition from environmental organizations it has been very difficult. Despite limited support, we continue to conduct the necessary scientific research to improve the sustainability of the aquaculture industry. We are currently engaged in several private-sector projects that are trying get started in Florida utilizing both recirculating and offshore aquaculture technologies. Unfortunately, a challenging permitting process and extremely high operating costs in the U.S. may discourage these entrepreneurs from moving forward. Until U.S. consumers decide to buy domestically produced seafood rather than cheaper imports, we will maintain a multi-billion dollar trade deficit and U.S. aquaculture will struggle to develop.

By: Dutch Petro

Dutch Petro — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 17:53:50 +0000

I find it disheartening that we are continuing to ship overseas, product that should be staying here at home. Even more so that our people are going with it because there are no projects here. I truely wish Daniel would do as much to promote private aquaculture projects, and stock replenishment in the U.S. as he has done overseas with people like Brian. I find it ironic at best these cobia born in a U.S. University are shipped to Panama, only to return in a year at several times the value. There is no good excuse fo this. In many ways it is simply sickening.