Will the fish on your dinner plate come from SeaWorld one day? It could soon.
Hubbs-SeaWorld, the nonprofit research center affiliated with the marine mammal theme park, has teamed up with a private equity firm to construct a 300,000-square-foot aquaculture facility—the world’s largest—4.5 miles off the San Diego coast. If built, Rose Canyon Fisheries Project would be able to raise 5,000 tons of California yellowtail a year.
“We’re the third-largest consumer of seafood in the world, but we’re only producing about 9 percent of it domestically,” said Don Kent, president of the Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute.
Instead, the United States relies on other countries, such as China, to produce its seafood, almost half of which is farmed. Meanwhile, stocks of wild fish are declining rapidly because of overfishing.
“This can breathe new life into our local seafood industry,” said Kent. “It can create an alternative source of protein and a new paradigm in the seafood business.”
