World Aquaculture December 2019

WWW.WA S.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • DECEMBER 2019 19 a local export industry, marine fish reproduction and larval rearing, fish nutrition and feed production and some of the earliest sea-cage research. HPU offers bachelors and master’s degrees in marine science which includes many opportunities for students to obtain hands-on experience with aquaculture at OI. The Division of Aquatic Resources (State of Hawaiʻi) continues to operate at the Anuenue Fisheries Resource Center located on Sand Island, Honolulu (Fig. 5). One of its earliest activities was to produce fish such as mullet for restocking efforts and it now houses a sea urchin hatchery and coral nursery. Hawaiʻi’s aquaculture activities are closely tied to activities in the U.S. Affiliated Pacific Islands (USAPI) which include the territories of American Samoa and Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands (CNMI) and the freely associated nations of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) and the Republic of Palau. One of the most active extension and research programs is based at the Marine and Environmental Research Institute of Pohnpei (MERIP) in FSMwhich supports community-based production of giant clams, sponges, corals and rabbitfish in the USAPI. The Palau Mariculture Development Center (PMDC) is now the largest aquaculture facility in the USAPI after a recent renovation and was important in the development of giant clam culture. It continues to play this role and is also engaged in development of rabbitfish, sea cucumbers and mud crab, many of which were supported by the USDA Regional Aquaculture Center (CTSA), based in Honolulu. There are also U.S.-accredited community colleges in the USAPI and one four-year university (University of Guam), all of which offer either marine science or aquaculture training. Culture Systems of Note Demonstration of commercial-scale open-ocean mariculture has been one of Hawaiʻi’s most impactful contributions to U.S. aquaculture (Fig. 6). Early research on this production system, particularly the initial environmental assessment and siting requirements (Helsley 2007), set the stage for mainland efforts to establish offshore farms in the U.S. Two commercial offshore cage projects for marine fish culture have been successfully deployed in Hawaiʻi. In 2001, four cages were located by Cates International Inc. off Ewa Beach, Honolulu and produced moi until 2010. Kona Blue Water Farms was established in 2004, with the first harvest of their trademarked Kona Kampachi (longfin amberjack Seriola rivoliana , Fig. 7) in 2005, from a site located about 1 mile north of Keāhole Point, in around 65 m deep water. By 2008, the company was producing 500 t per year, and grossing over $6 million annually, from eight submersible Sea Station cages, each 3,000 m3. The offshore operation and land-based hatchery were acquired in 2009 and 2010, respectively, by Blue Ocean Mariculture (affiliated at that time with the owners of Ocean Spar). The company continues operation today, using five Sea Stations, each between 6,000 and 8,000 m3. A pilot pearl farmwas established in 2006 near the moi cage farm but later closed. Another effort tried to establish a tuna farm on the Kohala Coast of the Island of Hawaiʻi, but this was discontinued after community opposition during the permitting process. Permitting continues to be a major consideration for offshore farming, in part due to public opposition and misinformation about environmental impacts of cage culture. The tremendous potential offered by open-ocean cage farming to increase local seafood production using state-of-the art best management practices and to reduce the carbon footprint of imported seafood has yet to be realized but the foundation has been laid. Kailua-Kona is the site of yet another pioneering offshore aquaculture effort in federal waters (beyond the 3 nm line). In 2011, Kampachi Farms LLC deployed the Velella Beta-test – a 20-ft diameter Aquapod, the world’s first unanchored net pen, designed to remain entrained within eddies in the western (lee) side of Hawaiʻi Island (Fig. 8). This was possibly the world’s first ever so-called ‘drifter-cage’ and was accorded recognition by TIMEMagazine and highlighted in Dr. Bob Ballard’s National Geographic special “Alien Deep.” It was also the first harvest of kampachi from an aquaculture net pen in U.S. Federal waters. In 2013, the company deployed the same net pen, stocked again with kampachi, onto a single-point mooring in 6,000 feet of water, 6 miles offshore of Keauhou Bay. The Velella Gamma was able to be run remotely from cloud connections, using a wi-fi bridge to the feed barge attached to the net pen array. ( C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 2 0 ) FIGURE 6. Dr. Charles “Chuck” Helsley holding a cultured moi (Polydactylus sexifilis) . Dr. Helsley led the early research on the feasibility and environmental impacts of open- ocean cage culture, circa 2003. FIGURE 7. Almaco jack (Seriola rivoliana) , known as kahala in Hawaiian, are grown in cages owned by Blue Ocean Mariculture and are located just offshore of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii Island. Fish are marketed as “Hawaiian Kanpachi”. Photo: Blue Ocean Mariculture.