The Honolulu Star Advertiser reported today that:
The company is Kamapachi Farms (formerly known as Kona Blue Water Farms), headed by Neil Sims (with a kampachi or yellowtail or kahala or almaco jack, and very close to hamachi), and the recognition is by Time Magazine as one of the 50 best inventions of 2012. I feel especially proud be because it was around two decades ago that I flew to Sydney, Australia and recruited Neil to Hawaii to run a pearl culture project involving former Governor George Ariyoshi and former Dean of Engineering at the University of Hawaii, Paul Yuen. If you clicked on that posting, yes, I'm still involved with Rainbow Pearls International.
The hunting and gathering tradition of fishing is shifting to aquaculture (already a third of all seafood you eat) and cage culture. Kampachi Farms is utilizing drifting spherical pens as shown above. Hawaii Oceanic Technology, also spearheaded by one of my colleagues, Bill Spencer, has similar oceanspheres (below) for ahi (yellow-fin tuna or maguro). These are the two leading white and red sashimi featured in sushi bars.
Someday, though, the ultimate ocean ranch will feature:
1. Completion of the basic science and engineering for the process.
2. Placement of these ranches in the open ocean away from coastal environments.
3. Linkage to the cold water effluent of ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) plantships. These waters are very high in nutrients in the exact ratio and composition needed for microbiological sea life.
a. Utilization of nutrient or temperature barriers (i.e., no cages).
b. Closing of the growth cycle so that no feeding is necessary .
c. Acoustically harvesting the seafood (not too sporty, but sound can attract fish).
d. Development of robotics to protect the fish.
How close are we to the ultimate ocean ranch? With a full court press generously funded, around the Year 2020. The reality is that this just will not happen, for our federal government mostly supports ocean science and not marine systems development. However, if the Pacific International Ocean Station (click on four minute clip on PIOS and my Seasteading talk in San Francisco to view my talk on this subject) can in timely fashion secure $1.5 billion, not only will next generation fisheries begin to flourish, but the first stage of the Blue Revolution will be launched, and the world will be closer to a range of sustainable ocean energies, marine biomass plantations, at-sea industrial parks and floating cities. Also too, perhaps, remediation of global warming and prevention of hurricanes. You can also read the Seasteading Institute's (their logo above right) views on PIOS and the Blue Revolution.
What's happening around the world? Keep up with projects like Green Float (above Japan), H2OCEAN (European Union), TROPOS (European Union), MERMAID (European Union) and PLOCAN (Canary Islands):
How important are our oceans to provide food and energy? Ninety percent of the world's living biomass is in the ocean. Marine sources provide about a quarter of protein eaten by humans. But all our fisheries are declining. With water shortages and the increasing world population, terrestrial solutions will not be forthcoming. The ocean is the next frontier for Humanity, and the Blue Revolution will be the key to our future.-
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