Sam Hill

Sam Hill

Reporting from Portland, Oregon

Sam Hill is a freelance journalist living in Portland, Oregon, and covering the U.S. aquaculture industry for SeafoodSource. He also writes about technology and internet culture with bylines in Outside Magazine, Boston Magazine, the Outline, and Motherboard.


Author Archive

Published on
January 21, 2020

Throughout the Hawaiian Islands, modern aquaculture is growing — but aquaculture has been present in the region for generations.

The techniques of herding or trapping adult fish with rocks in shallow tidal areas is found elsewhere in the world but the loko iʻa kuapā, or walled coastal ponds, are unique to Hawaii.

These fishponds can be found throughout the state, but over time, many of these ancient pools have fallen into disrepair as

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Published on
January 20, 2020

The Maine Aquaculture Association has kicked off a new video series focused on telling the personal stories of aquatic farmers throughout the state to increase public visibility and underscore how aquaculture complements existing marine industries in coastal communities.

The series, titled “The Faces of Maine’s Working Waterfront,” borrows a premise that has boded well for the state’s commercial fishing industry –

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Published on
January 8, 2020

The issue of who in the United States is charged with regulating aquaculture in federal waters was back in the courtroom this week as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration argued its case that it should lead all policy development

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Published on
January 3, 2020

Total sales of aquaculture products in the U.S. reached USD 1.5 billion (EUR 1.3 billion) in 2018, an increase of 10.5 percent …

Photo courtesy of Joseph

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Published on
December 19, 2019

Maisonnette, New Brunswick, Canada-based RC Organic Northern Products Inc. is proposing a land-based Atlantic salmon aquaculture venture, the first of its kind in the province …

Photo courtesy of RC Organic Northern Products

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Published on
December 13, 2019

When Kingfish Zeeland announced plans to build a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) yellowtail farm in Jonesport, Maine, U.S.A., the company was met with overwhelming support from town officials and residents.

The Kats, Netherlands-based firm is planning to build a 15- to 20-acre, state-of-the-art RAS facility on a 90-acre waterfront site east of town. The decision comes alongside two larger RAS projects – those of Whole

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Published on
December 4, 2019

Researchers at the University of Idaho Aquaculture Research Institute are shifting their goals when it comes to their work with burbot, and are exploring the feasibility of introducing the species – the only freshwater cod species in North America – to the commercial aquaculture industry.

In the early 2000s, the burbot population on the Kootenai River in northern Idaho and British Columbia had dwindled drastically due to habitat

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Published on
December 2, 2019

The labyrinthine process of obtaining the proper permits to establish fish farms in federal waters has been frequently cited as a major obstacle to the advancement of the U.S. aquaculture sector.

Currently, an application to start an aquaculture operation in federal waters is reviewed by a plethora of federal agencies including the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Coast Guard, NOAA Fisheries, and the Environmental Protection Agency, along with

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Published on
November 20, 2019

Ontario,Canada-based LifeScanner has been pushing to make choosing sustainable seafood products easier for corporations, consumers, and everyone in-between by focusing on one truth: genetic identification is hard to falsify.

While returning from an industry conference around 2014, LifeScanner’s soon-to-be founder Sujeevan Ratnasingham – the associate director of informatics at the Centre for Biodiversity Genomics at the University of

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