US firm building deep water tuna pens

Despite opposition to its open ocean, deep water tuna pens, Hawaii Ocean Technology, Inc. (HOTI) is going ahead with plans to begin testing its technology next year.

After garnering permits for a 247-acre, 35-year ocean lease off of Hawaii Island, HOTI will begin construction on its prototype Oceansphere by the end of this year. However, around 1,700 people signed a petition opposing the technology. Opponents have said that waste pollution from farming the yellowfin and bigeye tuna would damage the ecosystem, wash up on beaches and negatively impact tourism.

“The opponents don’t understand the science behind this. The Oceansphere is in deep water, and the waste would never get to shore. Furthermore, a previous study with Blue Ocean found no negative impact on the ocean bottom,” Bill Spencer, CEO of the privately-held company, told SeafoodSource. Further, HOTI is working with a company that will measure and transmit minute-by-minute environmental data on criteria set forth by the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies.

HOTI has spent millions of dollars obtaining the necessary permits and plans to go ahead with building and testing its system, according to Spencer.

Notably, HOTI aims to significantly contribute to the farmed seafood supply and help farmers that lease its Oceanspheres make money. Each 180-foot-wide geodesic sphere can produce 1,000 tons of tuna. If high-quality tuna is produced, that could translate to sales of USD 15 million (EUR 11.2 million) to USD 18 million (EUR 13.4 million) per sphere, per 18-month growing cycle, Spencer said.

“We want to serve international markets. Groups in Japan, Australia, and other countries are interested,” Spencer said. Patents for HOTI’s technology are pending in Europe and Japan, but it already has patents in the U.S., Australia, Canada, and the Philippines.

The market for farmed seafood is expected to surpass USD 200 billion (EUR 149  billion) by 2020 and “the deep ocean is the only place left to produce enough seafood naturally to feed the world efficiently, economically and with minimal environmental impact,” Spencer said.

The deep-water ocean technology boasts significantly faster growth of tuna along with lower parasitic loads and better food conversion ratios, he added. “Our goal is to address the need to really increase the amount of farmed seafood produced in the world. We are approaching a day when hunting for seafood is no longer practical.”

Spencer expects HOTI to begin construction on the first Oceansphere in 2015, and construction may take a year. Then, the company will test the deep ocean farming system for six months and begin an 18-month production cycle. The first commercial tuna harvest will likely occur by early 2018.

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