Kona fish farm
gets $4 million

Kona Blue Water Farms announced yesterday that it has received $4 million in investment that will allow it to proceed with plans to farm fish in open-ocean cages off the Kona coast of the Big Island.

Aspen, Colo.-based Cornerstone Holdings made the investment. Kona Blue, which has raised kampachi in a land-based fish farm at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii since August 2002, plans to expand that business to the open-ocean cages.

It intends to use two large surface cages for nursery culture and six large submersible cages in deeper water for more mature kampachi, known locally as kahala.

Kona Blue eventually expects to produce about 850 tons of fish annually, said Dale Sarver, one of the company's founders. The fish will be sold to restaurants and wholesalers in Hawaii and on the mainland.

Cornerstone Holdings is involved in real estate development, venture capital and portfolio management. As part of the investment deal, Cornerstone Holdings President and Chief Executive Tom McCloskey will become chairman of Kona Blue. McCloskey is former chairman of Colorado-based Horizon Organic Dairy.

Kona Blue is a subsidiary of Big Island pearl culture business Black Pearls Inc.