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UH program to seek
By Helen Altonn
site for raising
moi offshore
Star-BulletinA search will begin in September for offshore Hawaii sites that could be used to raise fish in sea cages.
The University of Hawaii Sea Grant Program has received $99,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for the study.
It's part of a national movement to develop an aquaculture industry offshore, said Leonard Young of the state Agriculture Department's Aquaculture Development Program.
"The United States nationally, when compared against efforts of other countries worldwide, is severely lagging behind in offshore fish farming," he said.
Young will manage and coordinate the project with Charles Helsley, retired University of Hawaii Sea Grant Program director, who spearheaded an open-ocean aquaculture experiment off Ewa last year.
Sea Grant scientists will work on the project with the Aquaculture Development Program and Office of Planning in the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
Others involved are UH physical oceanographers Mark Merrifield and Craig Tasaka and the geographical information system staff in the planning office.
The team has set a one-year goal to come up with some sites meeting their criteria.
Sea cage aquaculture demonstration projects also have been initiated by Sea Grant Programs in Texas, Maine and New Hampshire as part of the National Marine Aquaculture Initiative.
Scientists say the Hawaii study could lead to multiple benefits: an increased seafood supply, less reliance on imports, an improved trade balance, employment opportunities and coastal community development.
Helsley stocked Pacific threadfin -- known as moi in Hawaii -- in a sea cage in his pioneering Ewa project. It was the first successful integrated experiment in open-ocean mariculture, according to the Sea Grant Program.
Helsley cited these concerns in identifying areas for fish-rearing cages: ocean currents, shipping lanes, fishing grounds, other users, water quality and the sea bottom's suitability for anchors.
"Offshore aquaculture presents a unique opportunity for expansion of Hawaii's entrepreneurial base," he said.
In an interview upon his retirement from Sea Grant in March, Helsley said his experiment shows open-ocean fish farming can be done commercially in coastal areas without harmful impacts if it is done responsibly.
He also said the permit process is stifling and should be simplified. The effects of state and federal policies and regulatory processes will be examined as part of the study, and possible policy changes discussed to encourage ocean aquaculture farms.
E. Gordon Grau, who replaced Helsley as Sea Grant director, said Helsley has brought together private industry, the UH, Oceanic Institute and other parties in a concerted effort to develop the program.
It is unclear whether there is a huge market for moi outside Hawaii, Grau said, "but it is a good fish to grow. Technology is there."
He said the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology supported a number of projects in the 1970s that increased understanding of the moi's reproductive cycle.
Young said the project involves taking existing data that are not easily accessible and analyzing or modeling them to obtain new information.
The planning office will incorporate the data into a geographic information system to define suitable coastal sites.
Ka Leo O Hawaii
University of Hawaii
