Aquaculture farmers and officials are baffled by the proposed elimination of a state program they say is the backbone of a burgeoning $39 million industry.
New and expanded aqua-farming projects totaling $40 million are in the works with the Aquaculture Development Program's assistance, they say.
Yet, Gov. Ben Cayetano recommended that the Legislature delete the program's operating funds and 10 of its 11 positions by Dec. 31, leaving only program manager John S. Corbin.The House-drafted budget abolishes the aquaculture program, among others. However, a bill is pending to keep the program intact and move it from the Department of Land and Natural Resources to the Agriculture Department.
Comparing the program's $530,000 annual budget with the industry's millions, Big Island abalone farmer Lane Cameron said, "Some of the numbers don't seem to add up very well."
Ron Weidenbach, North Shore fish farmer and Hawaii Aquaculture Association president, said the industry is expected to double in size within five years.
"We're finally getting the payoff for these years and years of research and trial and error and struggle."
Weidenbach said he began growing fish 25 years ago, before the aquaculture program was available. "It was a pretty uncoordinated, discouraging exercise . . . So the systems they provide (in the state program) -- the full range of assistance -- are critical."
No other place offers such support for aquaculture, said Richard Masse, who searched the country more than a year for the best site for a marine ornamental hatchery.
He said the Aquaculture Development Program is "the cornerstone" of a network including the Oceanic Institute, University of Hawaii and Sea Grant Program.
By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Some operations have folded, and that's why, some say,
there is a perception that aquaculture isn't doing well. These
plastic pipes and cinder blocks are all that remain of what
was an aquaculture pond in Kahuku.
C. Richard Fassler, Aquaculture Development Program economic development specialist, said aquaculture is a key part of biotechnology, which Cayetano is pushing. The governor recently said he wants Hawaii to be "the Silicon Valley of the plant and ocean world."Cyanotech Corp. at the Natural Energy Laboratory at Keahole is a leading example of biotechnology, Fassler said. Cyanotech is the world's largest producer of spirulina microalgae as a health-food supplement.
Every Hawaii farmer growing things in water uses the aquaculture program's services, Fassler said. Aquatic disease specialist Jim Brock and his staff, for example, have 300 to 400 cases a year.
Among distant users is Paul Sandifer, director of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. "The ADP is truly a world-class program that is helping local people every day," he wrote to Cayetano.
After many difficult years and failed fish-farming attempts, Fassler said, Hawaii has "one of the best, if not the top, program in the world for aquaculture development. I thought we'd get some kind of award as the best program of the year. Then I found ourselves out on the ear."
Weidenbach believes there is a false perception that aquaculture isn't doing well here because of operations that folded. Rather than failure, he sees it as an evolving industry. "It was a necessary part of the learning curve."
He said little information was available when Taylor A. "Tap" Pryor and others started farming fish here.
"Tap Pryor is a good example . . . Even though he failed, his operation trained many of the people who went on to be successful. His site is the site of three or four successful aquaculture operations now, using his same facilities."
Weidenbach said the industry has doubled in 10 years when other businesses were flat or declining. Still, modern aquaculture is new, with many technical problems, he said. "So I think it's much too early to pull support away."
By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Some aquaculture operations survive and are
successful, though, with results like this.
"It's farming. It's hard work," Weidenbach said. "The ADP gives people a reality check," he said, then provides backup and support if they go on.Corbin said priorities were placed on services to the industry, with program funding cut in half the past three years.
He said Brock has an international reputation as an aquaculture disease expert, "which is a real competitive advantage for Hawaii in terms of the aquaculture industry."
Corbin believes Hawaii "can be one of the major players in the world" with a new industry developing for freshwater ornamental tropical fish. Clyde Tamaru and Rich Bailey, aquaculture production experts, are assisting with the development.
The staff also has spent "literally thousands of hours" streamlining the permit process and working with the community to restore Molokai fishponds, Corbin said.
A demonstration project is under way with two ponds, and people have asked for help with permitting to restore seven other ponds, he said.
The aquaculture program also is seeking changes to the ocean leasing law this session to make it "more user friendly," Corbin said.
If the program is wiped out, he said, "There will be no more lead agency, no more apparent commitment of the state to aquaculture development, to diversify the economy . . . There is a little inconsistency there."
Hawaii's aquaculture industry:
Comprises 157 aqua farms on all islands, with 19 consultants.
Source: Aquaculture Development Program,
state Department of Land and Natural Resources
