August 22, 2005
A fish tale | Farmed halibut have never been proved viable. But three Hancock County entrepreneurs think they've got the secret.
By Joseph Thompson
When aquaculture experts are asked about land-based halibut farming, it becomes very apparent that the concept is the holy grail of the industry. Yes, it's been thought about, even experimented with, but to many, raising halibut in indoor pens just doesn't look profitable. For years, companies have been trying to breed and farm the bizarre-looking but tasty fish, with minimal commercial success.
For example, Marine Harvest, one of the world's largest fish-farming companies, plans to end its attempts at land-based halibut farming in Scotland by 2007 to focus solely on its existing sea pens in Norway. That may be a logical move: The wild Pacific halibut population hit some of its highest numbers ever in recent years, and land-based halibut farming takes years to produce a return ˆ if it does so at all.
Despite all those cautionary tales, Alan Spear, Douglas Morrell and Nick Brown are convinced that there's money to be made in farmed halibut. Spear and Morrell, who migrated from the utilities sector, own Maine Halibut Farms, a Hancock County company that hopes to one day profitably distribute land-based farmed halibut to wholesalers across the country. The key to their plan is the work Brown has done at the University of Maine's Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research on Taunton Bay in Franklin. Brown worked in Scotland and Canada developing halibut husbandry techniques before becoming operations manager at CCAR, a business incubator and research facility where Maine Halibut Farms is headquartered until it is ready to move out on its own.
In the spring of 2002, CCAR was home to the first spawning of captive Atlantic halibut in the United States. And now CCAR may see the birth of the first successful land-based halibut farm in the United States: In early August, the first batch of 8,000 juvenile halibut at Maine Halibut Farms began the process of weaning, in which they transition from live foods to inert foods. Due to halibut's long growth cycle, it will be a few years before the effort's viability will be known for sure.
The difficulty of what Maine Halibut Farms is trying to achieve isn't lost on Brown. "There've been a lot of participants in this industry over the years, and a lot of them have just fallen by the wayside because they just can't make the economics work," he said.
And while Spear, Morrell and Brown have high hopes for Maine Halibut Farms, the Pacific halibut industry is already talking about ways to prevent farmed halibut from taking a piece of their market. "The main impact that we're seeing right now is a desire by the halibut industry to broaden their season," said Greg Williams, senior biologist for the Seattle-based International Pacific Halibut Commission. "The reason for that is their fear that the three-and-a-half-months [for which we're] closed currently would be the opportunity for the farmed halibut to enter the marketplace and get a toe-hold, affecting the marketing of wild product."
Chance of survival
Still, breeding halibut isn't as simple or as cost effective as dimming the lights and playing some Barry White. A wild-caught halibut can take several years before it spawns in captivity and then, during the years it takes for the offspring to grow to maturity, there are massive losses. "If you compare it to salmon, [which has] a much quicker production schedule, the [salmon] survival rates are much higher," said Brown. "You're generally talking 80% or 90% rather than five or 10%."
Like the breeding process for any finfish, halibut go through several stages. First, scientists collect eggs from the female. A female halibut produces anywhere from half a million to two million eggs, depending on the size of the fish. Often, according to Brown, 10% of the eggs spawned remain unfertilized, and another 15%-20% don't hatch. After they're hatched, halibut, like salmon, spend the first part of their life getting their nourishment from a yolk sac. "You've probably lost between 20% and even 90% through the yolk sac phase," said Brown.
But at CCAR and Maine Halibut Farms, the survival rate through the yolk sac phase is high, about 70%-80%. "We've done very well, I've done very well, historically through the yolk sac phase," said Brown. "I have a good set of protocols developed, and they seem to be working here as well."
Following the yolk sac phase, the brood faces more losses ˆ as much as 20%-40% ˆ as it moves into solid food; an additional 15% can be lost as the fish are weaned from live food to inert food. "Once you start doing the math, you realize that if you're getting five percent through of the fertilized eggs, you're doing very well," said Brown. "It's a numbers game, really. If you can get five to 10% from a batch of eggs that may be a half a million ˆ that is 10,000 to 25,000 fish."
And, according to Spear, pursuing halibut farming on land ˆ rather than in pens at sea, which have caused controversy for salmon farmers ˆ is the only logical approach. "I think, in order for aquaculture to reach its fullest potential in this state with a rich history of fishing, a land-based approach is necessary," he said. "Be assured, net-pen rearing is probably not going to expand much beyond sites that are already permitted for a variety of reasons, be they political, physical or scenic."
And, Spear said, because of its managed, closed environment, the land-based approach presents an opportunity to create a more valuable product at a lower cost. "We probably would not have pursued this if net pens were required," he said.
A similarity to salmon?
To start the business in 2002, Spear and Morrell relied both on personal funds ˆ they won't disclose how much ˆ and three grants from the Maine Technology Institute totaling $24,000, plus $80,500 of matching funds. The money has allowed them to not only begin breeding the halibut, but also to do some "modest market placement," as Spear said, referring to the few restaurants and individuals to which he's distributed the fish. "The response has been fabulous," said Spear.
Currently, MHF is being "incubated" by CCAR, a research department run by the Office of Research and Economic Development at the University of Maine. ORED, through CCAR and other similar programs, is working to commercialize the research efforts of the university by providing a space for small businesses to develop. "They're nurturing our business on a modest scale," said Spear, "while we learn techniques and expertise from university employees."
According to Spear, while there is a contractual relationship between Maine Halibut Farms and CCAR, the details of which he would not disclose, CCAR does not own any part of the business. CCAR will continue to host MHF until it reaches an economically feasible commercial production level and can move out on its own. Spear see this happening within three to five years.
However, according to Williams of the IPHC, a U.S.-Canadian halibut research and management commission, many of the halibut fishers who oppose the concept of farmed halibut have experience fighting an aquaculture product; many of them were adversely affected by the rise of salmon farming in the 1990s. But the idea of expanding the Pacific halibut season year-round is unlikely, he says, as both governments need at least six weeks of down time to calculate individual catch totals and other data needed to regulate the harvest.
Williams said the commission has discussed how to handle the impact of an increase in the supply of farmed halibut for several years. However, he said, any ideas that do emerge will take time before they've been implemented. "I've been here at the commission for over 25 years and I've seen a lot of great ideas come and go," said Williams. "The fishing industry is not one that really embraces change easily and quickly."
And then there's the consumer angle. "I think the greatest concerns would be in the marketplace, whether or not consumers would take to buying farm-raised halibut if the pricing is competitive and [depending on ] the availability of the product," said Mike Plotnick, research analyst in the commercial fisheries division of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. According to Plotnick, if farmed halibut begins to be offered for sale, it will be examined by regulators for some of the issues recently discovered with farmed salmon. "We would certainly look at what the [farmed] halibut are fed, if there's any kind of health issues," said Plotnick, citing the case of the additives used to color the flesh of farmed salmon, which have been the subject of much debate both in the media and in aquaculture circles.
Ultimately, though, the deciding factor in the fate of farmed halibut will be the desires of grocery store shoppers. "I think the consumer will give you the answer through their buying habits," said Williams.
In the end, Spear sees the debate over farmed versus wild as unnecessary since, he said, there's room in the market for both. "In colonial times there were many thousands of metric tons of halibut consumed in what was then a very small United States, and Atlantic halibut continues to be a high-value fish wherever it's landed," said Spear. "I see the land-based facilities, even a lot of them, producing nowhere near what was produced of Atlantic halibut."
For example, Marine Harvest, one of the world's largest fish-farming companies, plans to end its attempts at land-based halibut farming in Scotland by 2007 to focus solely on its existing sea pens in Norway. That may be a logical move: The wild Pacific halibut population hit some of its highest numbers ever in recent years, and land-based halibut farming takes years to produce a return ˆ if it does so at all.
Despite all those cautionary tales, Alan Spear, Douglas Morrell and Nick Brown are convinced that there's money to be made in farmed halibut. Spear and Morrell, who migrated from the utilities sector, own Maine Halibut Farms, a Hancock County company that hopes to one day profitably distribute land-based farmed halibut to wholesalers across the country. The key to their plan is the work Brown has done at the University of Maine's Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research on Taunton Bay in Franklin. Brown worked in Scotland and Canada developing halibut husbandry techniques before becoming operations manager at CCAR, a business incubator and research facility where Maine Halibut Farms is headquartered until it is ready to move out on its own.
In the spring of 2002, CCAR was home to the first spawning of captive Atlantic halibut in the United States. And now CCAR may see the birth of the first successful land-based halibut farm in the United States: In early August, the first batch of 8,000 juvenile halibut at Maine Halibut Farms began the process of weaning, in which they transition from live foods to inert foods. Due to halibut's long growth cycle, it will be a few years before the effort's viability will be known for sure.
The difficulty of what Maine Halibut Farms is trying to achieve isn't lost on Brown. "There've been a lot of participants in this industry over the years, and a lot of them have just fallen by the wayside because they just can't make the economics work," he said.
And while Spear, Morrell and Brown have high hopes for Maine Halibut Farms, the Pacific halibut industry is already talking about ways to prevent farmed halibut from taking a piece of their market. "The main impact that we're seeing right now is a desire by the halibut industry to broaden their season," said Greg Williams, senior biologist for the Seattle-based International Pacific Halibut Commission. "The reason for that is their fear that the three-and-a-half-months [for which we're] closed currently would be the opportunity for the farmed halibut to enter the marketplace and get a toe-hold, affecting the marketing of wild product."
Chance of survival
Still, breeding halibut isn't as simple or as cost effective as dimming the lights and playing some Barry White. A wild-caught halibut can take several years before it spawns in captivity and then, during the years it takes for the offspring to grow to maturity, there are massive losses. "If you compare it to salmon, [which has] a much quicker production schedule, the [salmon] survival rates are much higher," said Brown. "You're generally talking 80% or 90% rather than five or 10%."
Like the breeding process for any finfish, halibut go through several stages. First, scientists collect eggs from the female. A female halibut produces anywhere from half a million to two million eggs, depending on the size of the fish. Often, according to Brown, 10% of the eggs spawned remain unfertilized, and another 15%-20% don't hatch. After they're hatched, halibut, like salmon, spend the first part of their life getting their nourishment from a yolk sac. "You've probably lost between 20% and even 90% through the yolk sac phase," said Brown.
But at CCAR and Maine Halibut Farms, the survival rate through the yolk sac phase is high, about 70%-80%. "We've done very well, I've done very well, historically through the yolk sac phase," said Brown. "I have a good set of protocols developed, and they seem to be working here as well."
Following the yolk sac phase, the brood faces more losses ˆ as much as 20%-40% ˆ as it moves into solid food; an additional 15% can be lost as the fish are weaned from live food to inert food. "Once you start doing the math, you realize that if you're getting five percent through of the fertilized eggs, you're doing very well," said Brown. "It's a numbers game, really. If you can get five to 10% from a batch of eggs that may be a half a million ˆ that is 10,000 to 25,000 fish."
And, according to Spear, pursuing halibut farming on land ˆ rather than in pens at sea, which have caused controversy for salmon farmers ˆ is the only logical approach. "I think, in order for aquaculture to reach its fullest potential in this state with a rich history of fishing, a land-based approach is necessary," he said. "Be assured, net-pen rearing is probably not going to expand much beyond sites that are already permitted for a variety of reasons, be they political, physical or scenic."
And, Spear said, because of its managed, closed environment, the land-based approach presents an opportunity to create a more valuable product at a lower cost. "We probably would not have pursued this if net pens were required," he said.
A similarity to salmon?
To start the business in 2002, Spear and Morrell relied both on personal funds ˆ they won't disclose how much ˆ and three grants from the Maine Technology Institute totaling $24,000, plus $80,500 of matching funds. The money has allowed them to not only begin breeding the halibut, but also to do some "modest market placement," as Spear said, referring to the few restaurants and individuals to which he's distributed the fish. "The response has been fabulous," said Spear.
Currently, MHF is being "incubated" by CCAR, a research department run by the Office of Research and Economic Development at the University of Maine. ORED, through CCAR and other similar programs, is working to commercialize the research efforts of the university by providing a space for small businesses to develop. "They're nurturing our business on a modest scale," said Spear, "while we learn techniques and expertise from university employees."
According to Spear, while there is a contractual relationship between Maine Halibut Farms and CCAR, the details of which he would not disclose, CCAR does not own any part of the business. CCAR will continue to host MHF until it reaches an economically feasible commercial production level and can move out on its own. Spear see this happening within three to five years.
However, according to Williams of the IPHC, a U.S.-Canadian halibut research and management commission, many of the halibut fishers who oppose the concept of farmed halibut have experience fighting an aquaculture product; many of them were adversely affected by the rise of salmon farming in the 1990s. But the idea of expanding the Pacific halibut season year-round is unlikely, he says, as both governments need at least six weeks of down time to calculate individual catch totals and other data needed to regulate the harvest.
Williams said the commission has discussed how to handle the impact of an increase in the supply of farmed halibut for several years. However, he said, any ideas that do emerge will take time before they've been implemented. "I've been here at the commission for over 25 years and I've seen a lot of great ideas come and go," said Williams. "The fishing industry is not one that really embraces change easily and quickly."
And then there's the consumer angle. "I think the greatest concerns would be in the marketplace, whether or not consumers would take to buying farm-raised halibut if the pricing is competitive and [depending on ] the availability of the product," said Mike Plotnick, research analyst in the commercial fisheries division of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. According to Plotnick, if farmed halibut begins to be offered for sale, it will be examined by regulators for some of the issues recently discovered with farmed salmon. "We would certainly look at what the [farmed] halibut are fed, if there's any kind of health issues," said Plotnick, citing the case of the additives used to color the flesh of farmed salmon, which have been the subject of much debate both in the media and in aquaculture circles.
Ultimately, though, the deciding factor in the fate of farmed halibut will be the desires of grocery store shoppers. "I think the consumer will give you the answer through their buying habits," said Williams.
In the end, Spear sees the debate over farmed versus wild as unnecessary since, he said, there's room in the market for both. "In colonial times there were many thousands of metric tons of halibut consumed in what was then a very small United States, and Atlantic halibut continues to be a high-value fish wherever it's landed," said Spear. "I see the land-based facilities, even a lot of them, producing nowhere near what was produced of Atlantic halibut."
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