Top 25: Forever Oceans Q&A
Forever Oceans is featured in The Top 25 Seafood Product Innovators list, published by SeafoodSource on 28 September, 2021.
SeafoodSource: What are the key features highlighted in Forever Oceans’ latest product innovations, and what kind of trends inspired them?
Forever Oceans: Forever Oceans is unique in that we have combined expertise and technologies in engineering, infrastructure, biology, production, marketing, and more, to offer an integrated solution for environmentally-friendly ocean mariculture.
Our core value is to be a positive force in the communities in which we operate, whether it be with our employees and contractors or the fish and environment in which they live.
Our systems include mariculture systems for fish breeding and an offshore platform. Our production is streamlined through automation with robots who care for and monitor the fish with human oversight via remote communications. Our innovative technologies detect risks and allow us to operate with greater efficiency than traditional approaches and with reduced operational and] environmental risks.
Our fish are ocean-raised – grown in the clean, clear water of the open ocean. This is better for the fish, better for consumers, and better for the planet because the culture systems more closely approximate the fish’s natural environment, reducing stress on the animals and improving fish health. This process allows us to raise our fish without the routine use of antibiotics or chemical therapeutants to control parasites or pathogens. Offshore, we have the room to responsibly scale our production to help feed a growing planet, all while avoiding sensitive coastal habitats and preventing cumulative environmental impacts.
Our process allows us to grow fish more efficiently and sustainably, using advances in automation, remote sensing, and biology. At the heart of our approach is the remote monitoring of our fish as they are grown with minimal interaction with people in the ocean. This real time monitoring allows us to properly feed and monitor the health of our fish without impacting wild fishery resources or people.
Our commitment to sustainable oceans includes the nets that we use for our mariculture farms. Our mesh is made with a copper alloy so it is extremely strong and less likely to degrade over time so we protect against breaks or tears that might impact the ocean.
We monitor all our fish-production operations remotely in real-time. This includes water quality in and around the farm. We control the diet of the fish to assure a high-quality product for consumers. This, along with tests on the fish after harvest, assure there are no contaminants in the fish products that we sell.
Additionally, Forever Oceans has established itself as a leader in educating chefs and consumers on the benefits of Kahala on restaurant menus and at home. For instance, we are building a relationship with Culinary Institute of America (CIA) Consulting for educating future chef superstars.
In the first-of-its-kind culinary competition, students from all three CIA campus locations in New York, California, and Texas will be eligible to compete in what we are calling the Kahala Klash. Eight finalists will compete on 7 November at the Hyde Park campus to prepare the best dish using kahala. Winners will receive scholarships toward their education at the CIA and they will be judged by a celebrity panel including Andrew Zimmern and “Flavor and The Menu” publisher Cathy Holley. It is an example of our commitment to the foodservice industry and sustainably delicious seafood.
SeafoodSource: Heading into 2022, what are your goals with Forever Oceans’ product portfolio?
Forever Oceans: We will be ramping up operations off the coasts of Panama, Indonesia, and Brazil. All our supply chain partners will be fully on board and serving premier retailers and restaurants across the U.S. We will be scaling up operations and will be bringing to market other high-value fish in the U.S. We will expand our number of employees globally while maintaining our competitive edge in technology for remotely raising and monitoring our fish while protecting our oceans. Our emphasis on sustainably delicious seafood will never be deterred.
Photo courtesy of Forever Oceans
