Sounds real. These folks are in process of building a land based salmon farm in Florida at a cost of 130mil. They claim this farm will produce 90,000 tons of Atlantic Salmon fillets each year. They claim to plan several more farms at a total cost of 585mil.

If true it would mean a lot more competition for the commercials.


https://www.seattletimes.com/business/fl...-tropical-land/

And there was this as posted by Bushbear on the Atlantics from Net Pens were Infected with Virus thread (http://www.piscatorialpursuits.com/forum...html#Post985588):


"An article from the National Fisherman about a large scale land-based Atlantic salmon farm proposed in Belfast, Maine


https://www.nationalfisherman.com/viewpo...re-salmon-farm/

Tanks a million: Maine strikes a deal for an onshore salmon farm
By Jessica Hathaway February 1, 2018

The town of Belfast, Maine, and a Norwegian aquaculture company have entered an agreement that could see the production of farmed salmon in the town to the tune of 60 jobs.*

Nordic Aquafarms plans to invest north of $450 million into a 40-acre land-based tank farm on a site they have contracted to buy from the Belfast Water District. And I think it’s safe to say Mainers are freaking out about it. As much as Mainers ever freak out, anyway.

Responses run the gamut from, “Did you hear about them Norwegians, deah?” to “Well isn’t that cunning?” (OK, maybe that’s just how it goes in my head, imagining old-timers talking about it over coffee and pie at the bean supper.)

But the people of Belfast are cautiously ecstatic. The deal with the water district includes 26 acres and an annual volume of water (the other 14 acres are currently privately owned). Excitement about new jobs and investment is tempered only by unknowns, like what do tanked salmon eat? How will the waste be managed? How many of the 60 jobs in the initial 2-year investment phase will be filled by locals?

Nordic Aquafarms CEO Erik Heim noted that the facility will be designed to produce a low-impact discharge of water that is free of chemicals and medications. He added that all waste will be recycled, and the site design will incorporate renewable energy.

Though my penchant runs toward wild fisheries, I also recognize that fish farming is not going away. Some aquaculture is inherently beneficial to wild fisheries, like mussels, clams and oysters. Ocean net pens have improved over the decades, but they are still far from clean or beneficial — only marginally less harmful, assuming they work as planned. If a company is committed to farming salmon or any other finfish, I much prefer the use of land-based tanks.

Following the West Coast salmon spill this year, net pens are under more well-deserved scrutiny. If we’re going to pour resources into improving finfish farming techniques, why not home in on tanks that keep the farm stock separated from the wild stock?

If Nordic Aquafarms reaches its goal to pump out 66 million pounds of salmon a year (about 7 percent of American salmon consumption), they will certainly be giving traditional salmon farmers a run for their money."


It is very obvious that those companies have deep pockets and see a long, lucrative future for their product. But it also appears that they are done in WA unless they come up with a substantially revamped system.

Begs the question, "How on earth will they manage the sheer waste produced at such high production volumes?"

Hopefully they address the waste issue and how to feed that many salmon without decimating the species of fish/krill/squid that our wild stocks need.

Soy??? Seriously, as I recall there has been work on developing at least a partial plant based feed.

Same way we manage the waste from cattle feedlots, chicken farms, hog farms, cities, Victoria BC, and so on. Simply a cost to do business weighed against how much is donated to campaigns. As to the food to feed them, same place we get the food for cattle, pigs, chickens.

It will take less land and less water to produce those fish. The land and water can then be used for population growth by humans.

Raise Tilapia?

OK... I missed this part the first quick scan thru the article.

"The aquifer structure of southern Florida is believed to be the only area in the U.S. suitable to do this type of aquaculture farm at this scale, Andreassen said. That’s because the geology allows for ample freshwater and saltwater, and the separate safe disposal of treated wastewater via a 2,750-foot-deep injection well, he said."

Would love to see how it all works out.

Seems like the cost of chilling water to 59 degrees in a climate that's typically 80-90 degrees could be cost-prohibitive, but with $130 million in planned infrastructure, they must have some dammed deep pockets.

They gonna sell that fish at Copper River prices?

IMO more power to em. It is the future, and is going to get figured out one way or another despite all the protest. It will get realized economically, environmentally, ecologically, and eventually w/ probably the greatest resistance, culturally. I would even bet at some point the Tribes lead the way. Progress is a hard one to stop, and it does nothing but benefit the fish to get the commercials and the way of their harvest off the water period.

The whole thing kind of reminds me of this movie ....

Sure seems like an odd place to rear cold-water fish. The freshwater aspect seems "odd" as Florida is really running out of potable freshwater. But, they got lots of salt if they can cool it off.

Given the plasticity of salmonids (some cutts in Nevada tolerate >70, maybe up to 80) they may be able to do all sorts of selective breeding. That kind of money lets them do quite a bit.

I thought the book "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" was way better than the movie.

Soylent Red.

I'm sure something will go horribly wrong with this, but until it does, wild salmon should benefit from the removal of the waste and toxins associated with net pens from their environment. So far, it sounds like progress.

Not sure we should expect this development to have any impact on commercial ocean salmon harvest. Salmon farms are about filling a growing market for reasonably priced "salmon." There are still plenty of people crazy (and wealthy) enough to pay $300 for a fillet, so the wild market will live on.

I would like to better understand the intent to use this deep injection well as a method of waste treatment. Are they really treating it, or just pumping it far away in some kind of unsustainable way. The other thing is the source for enough feed for that many farmed salmon. Already the oceans are being "mined" of lower trophic feed sources for existing livestock. I think the forage and feed supplies are not infinite.

I am certain that occasionally it costs me $300 for a fillet but it wasnt from the seafood market.

I was wondering this too. Also, they're going to have to feed these farmed fish something other than pig feed (I assume). So, in order to find little fish to feed the big fish, they're still going to exploit the hell out of the forage fish stocks.

Make me worry.

Good point. I guess I do fork out a bit of money for what often amounts to a nice day on or near the water. No telling how much the few fish I harvest every year cost per pound, to say nothing of the time invested. Fortunately, fishing is its own reward (or, at least that's what I tell myself).

They have a website. Considering the world demand for salmon and the potential profit, it could happen. "Coming in 2020"

http://atlanticsapphire.com/index.php/american-sapphire

Yeah... "Deep injection" sounds a lot like deep disposal. Hopefully, there is some ecological condition that keeps this truly sustainable, versus simply putting the issue out of sight, sort of like what we do with nuclear waste.

Food of the future for salmon and people- BUGS....
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/02/salmon-insect-feed-fish-meal-netherlands/