BajaNomad - Baja bluefin tuna farmers seek future in San Diego

Baja bluefin tuna farmers seek future in San Diego

BajaNews - 6-1-2011 at 06:00 AM

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/may/31/tuna-ranchers...

By Mike Lee
May 31, 2011

Three decades after San Diego’s famed tuna industry crumbled, an Icelandic entrepreneur is attempting to rebuild the city as a world tuna capital.

Unlike tuna fishers of the 20th Century, Oli Steindorsson isn’t pinning his hopes on the wild harvest of northern bluefin. Instead, his company recently purchased a major tuna farm in Baja California and established its corporate headquarters in a high-rise near Little Italy.

From the 11th floor, Steindorsson can see San Diego Bay, once home to the tuna fleet, and dream about expanding his business into Southern California waters. Today, domestic ocean aquaculture is tangled in red tape, but the Obama administration is rewriting the rules to encourage the development of fish farms.

“This used to be the tuna capital of the world, and what is more appropriate than relocating here because of that,” said Steindorsson, chief executive of Umami Sustainable Seafood. “The hope is that one day we will be allowed to copy and paste these production (techniques) from the Mexico waters into the U.S. waters.”

If his plans work, Umami would be well-positioned to revive a type of commercial fishing in San Diego, provide jobs on the water and feed U.S. customers sushi-grade seafood.

Even if it doesn’t, Umami plans to expand operations near Ensenada and begin breeding the giant fish in captivity, a delicate venture that has yet to be done on a commercial scale. Once achieved, it would allow Umami to minimize ocean harvest, cut fishing costs and reduce pressure on wild stocks of tuna, some of which have been severely overfished.

“This is big business to these guys. They are like the General Electric of seafood,” said Don Kent, president of the nonprofit Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute in Mission Bay.

Like many with ties to the ocean, he bemoans the demise of the San Diego tuna industry and wants to see sea ranching grow so it provides more high-protein meals to Americans.

“Mexico has said this is important,” said Kent, who has collaborated on research with Umami. “We are still having the debate here. In the meantime, we just keep importing more and more seafood.”

Worldwide, aquaculture is expected to account for an increasing share of fish consumption because of concerns about overharvesting wild seafood. The United States has lagged behind other countries in marine aquaculture, and a major policy question is whether the nation should import more farmed fish or increase domestic production.

While aquaculture has an up side, it’s not trouble-free and environmental groups disagree about how big of a role it should play. Concerns include the spread of disease among fish in proximity, escape of hatchery fish and the buildup of fish feces.

A recent study based on modeling by scientists at Stanford and Colorado State University said fish excrement can create pollution problems and is a “major threat to ocean ecosystems.” It said pollution doesn’t decline equally in all directions from the holding pens, and concentrated pockets of contaminants can travel far enough to affect coastal communities.

“Our approach to aquaculture is at an important juncture right now,” said Roz Naylor, a study author at Stanford. “As the aquaculture industry grows, so will the number of pens that create pollution. The models that we developed for this study can help regulators determine how waste from proposed fish farms might impact the waterways and coastlines both near and far from the pens.”

Despite potential problems, the Obama administration in February published proposed rules that were generally supportive of the $1 billion domestic aquaculture industry even though some advocates said they didn’t go far enough.

“It’s our hope that the policies provide sort of a framework for future development of marine aquaculture in an environmentally safe and responsible manner,” said Diane Windham, southwest regional aquaculture coordinator for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Sacramento.

While there are no commercial fish farms in federal waters on the West Coast, Hubbs-SeaWorld in 2009 tried to get permission for a large-scale research project using tens of thousands of striped bass off Mission Beach. Plans were snarled in regulations and never materialized.

“My long-term vision for us is to look south of the border and say, why don’t we do that here?” said Kent. “Why don’t we put the economic benefits here?”

Leaders at Umami have heard about the difficulties of fish ranching in the U.S. and don’t foresee setting up giant pens in California waters any time soon. In the short term, they are looking to maximize production at Baja Aqua Farms, which they purchased late last year in hopes of “optimizing” the operation.

It was founded in 1999 by an Australian whose company was in Baja to secure feed fish for tuna farms back home.

Umami leaders tout the “sustainable” nature of their business partly because unlike crops on land tuna don’t require fresh water, one of the world’s most critically short natural resources. They said they have minimized pollution concerns at their Baja sites by selecting locations with a good flow of water that disperses fish waste.

“We are trying to do everything for the long-term such that we are able to harvest tomorrow and the day after and the day after that,” said Steindorsson. “We are seriously concerned about the fish health, and if we screw up the biology of the area we have basically shot ourselves in the legs.”

He aims to make his business more environmentally friendly by pioneering captive breeding techniques for bluefin in commercial pens. Mature fish can get so large — several hundred pounds — and they need so much food and water that it’s difficult to create ideal spawning areas in a controlled environment. It’s been done on a research scale, but Steindorsson is confident the practice will be ready for business use.

“Within 20 to 30 years, America — thinking about its own independence in food sourcing — will really have to look into their (aquaculture) system and how to secure this,” Steindorsson said. “In the next 5 or 10 years, I would be pleasantly surprised if we would be able to start. But if it happens, we will be ready.”

--

Umami Sustainable Seafood:

• Reported sales of $42 million for 2,200 metric tons of bluefin tuna for the latest quarter
• Has about 400 employees in San Diego, Baja California and Croatia
• Runs Kali Tuna, a large tuna farm in the Adriatic Sea
• Purchased Baja Aqua Farms in Baja California last year
• Is traded over-the-counter as UMAM

dtbushpilot - 6-1-2011 at 07:23 AM

Not a chance of this happening in US waters......dt

cbuzzetti - 6-1-2011 at 01:49 PM

That is so funny that this is called a sustainable fishery. :fire:

The tuna that are netted near this area are juvenile fish. They have not yet bred, they are then put in these grow out pens and fattened up for market.

These fish will never produce offspring to replace them as in non-sustainable.

Whole schools of fish are netted with the use of helicopters and high tech vessels.

It is only a matter of time before the Bluefin fishery completely collapses.

The industry has been trying to get the Bluefin to breed in captivity for a very long time with no evidence that it will happen.

Once the Bluefin is gone they will then move to Yellowfin and Albacore. They grow faster but have less value currently.

I am for sustainable fisheries both natural and farmed. This is just not one that meets that criteria.

Lobsterman - 6-1-2011 at 03:37 PM

Also, what do you think these bluefin are going to eat? Ans: local caught sardines and anchovies. Feeding the tuna in the many mexican pens around Ensenada and the Coronado Islands has decimated the schools of these local bait fish. Could be a reason the local yellowtail has dwindled since the pens were built. No bait to eat equals no fish. It is mexican water so they can do want they want, but stay out of our waters. A required EIS for pens in San Diego waters will show this.

Talk to the local people up in Western Canada about their horror stories about fish farming, i.e. poop, diseases, leeches, etc. Only the corporations make money at the expense of the local people and their environment.

marv sherrill - 6-1-2011 at 05:26 PM

Consider the following - If the tuna were left in the ocean they would be eating the bait fish anyway - in pens, they expend much less energy as they do not have to chase their prey, avoid predation, they just swim in circles. This requires much less energy and they grow faster as they do not burn body fat doing those things. The normal ten to one food pyramid drops to around 3 to one so that 3 lbs of food produces one pound of tuna instead of the normal ten pounds of bait fish they would capture in the wild to produce one pound of fish. In the US, using Talapia, and using waste agricultural products blended with minimal fish products they have it down to a 1 to1 ratio - which is ecologically amazing! In the long run it does help to sustain the species as it reduces bycatch and the constant need to long line or net. (See April Scientific American. ) The faster growth of the fish reduces the need to constantly pursue tuna, allowing the remainig schools to thrive and reproduce -

[Edited on 6-2-2011 by marv sherrill]

cbuzzetti - 6-1-2011 at 06:30 PM

Marv if the fish do not reproduce there will be no more fish. the math is very simple on this equation.

The Bluefin have been hunted to near extinction already. The catch methods have improved greatly and the average size of a Pacific Bluefin is getting smaller every year.

This is just another nail in the coffin.

Lobsterman - 6-2-2011 at 05:45 AM

Bluefin do not hang around Ensenada all year long. They come in schools moving from south to north. We are lucky if they are around for a month. Bluefin like clean water about 65-68 degrees. So by keeping the bluefin fulltime in the pens the local waters are depleted of bait fish to feed this migratory fish.

Cypress - 6-2-2011 at 06:02 AM

Maybe those Asian carp could be harvested and converted into fish food?

This is un natural for the species,. what about the genetic changes that will occure from the new lazy life style these fish will lead and there eventual escape into the wild population. "It's not nice to fool mother nature"

BajaRat - 6-2-2011 at 06:12 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by marv sherrill
Consider the following - If the tuna were left in the ocean they would be eating the bait fish anyway - in pens, they expend much less energy as they do not have to chase their prey, avoid predation, they just swim in circles. This requires much less energy and they grow faster as they do not burn body fat doing those things. The normal ten to one food pyramid drops to around 3 to one so that 3 lbs of food produces one pound of tuna instead of the normal ten pounds of bait fish they would capture in the wild to produce one pound of fish. In the US, using Talapia, and using waste agricultural products blended with minimal fish products they have it down to a 1 to1 ratio - which is ecologically amazing! In the long run it does help to sustain the species as it reduces bycatch and the constant need to long line or net. (See April Scientific American. ) The faster growth of the fish reduces the need to constantly pursue tuna, allowing the remainig schools to thrive and reproduce -

[Edited on 6-2-2011 by marv sherrill]

[Edited on 6-2-2011 by BajaRat]

DENNIS - 6-2-2011 at 06:33 AM

Ensenada used to have a vibrant Yellowtail fishery, but it seems that, with the introduction of the fish pens and the seiners scooping up bait in the harbor to feed the Tuna, the Yellows have gone elsewhere.

BajaRat - 6-2-2011 at 06:37 AM

Oh how I remember Dennis. What the hell happened? Whats changed?

DENNIS - 6-2-2011 at 06:46 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by BajaRat
Oh how I remember Dennis. What the hell happened? Whats changed?

You mean to the YT? Like I mentioned....the Tuna are, or were, getting their food. There are, I don't know, maybe a dozen Tuna Pens out front of my place that haven't been used for five years. I guess they've run down the supply off-shore as well.

I'm not sure exactly what changed. Seining in the bay is supposed to be illegal, but they still do it every day and if they have Tuna to feed, they'll do it more and this bay will turn into a ghost town. Money talks.

LaloinBaja - 6-2-2011 at 08:08 AM

So...Somebody explain to me how the tuna are caught, kept slive and transferred to the pens..wherever they be?????Lalo

Lobsterman - 6-2-2011 at 09:40 AM

The purse seiners use helicopters to spot for schools of bluefin tuna. Then the seiners go out and surround the entire school of bluefin. Thus capturing everything not letting any get away if possible. That eliminates an entire generation of bluefin which will never spawn.

In the old days they used long cane poles and would catch only a fraction of a school before the bluefin dropped down deep out of reach. This allowed the species to propagate for future generations of bluefin.

The pens are towed out to where the seiners are working and the caught bluefin are transfered to the pens. The pens are then towed to a grow out area (Ensenada or the Coronado islands). Each time I go to the Coronados fishing there seems to be more pens (about 20 now). When the bluefin are of the correct size the entire pen is towed to an asia market.

Last I read the Koreans own the mexican tuna pens and just payoff the mexican authorities to rape their part of the ocean. Imagine that!

It's amazing to me how misguided the public is in thinking that ocean fish farming is good for the planet. But that's the bunny hugger logic of the internet crowd today that never sets foot outside their door and believes everything their twisted thinking comrades say.

DENNIS - 6-2-2011 at 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by LaloinBaja
So...Somebody explain to me how the tuna are caught, kept slive and transferred to the pens..wherever they be?????Lalo

Large Purse Seiners, net boats, go as far offshore as necessary, using planes and helicopters to find schools of Tuna. The boats drag a collapsed pen, like a huge, under water basket, with them. When they net a school of Tuna, the put them in the pen and slowly drag it back home....wherever that may be.
Then they fatten them up to sell mostly to Japanese Sushi/Sashimi eaters. That's were all the bait goes leaving little for other species in the Bay.

Sorry there, L-Man. I posted on top of you.

http://www.suite101.com/content/tuna-farms-are-more-like-ran...
.

.

[Edited on 6-2-2011 by DENNIS]

ElFaro - 6-2-2011 at 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Lobsterman
So by keeping the bluefin fulltime in the pens the local waters are depleted of bait fish to feed this migratory fish.

Not only bait fish but migratory flocks of birds have disappeared from the Estero Beach Resort Bay behind Todos Santos Bay...they don't have any bait fish to feed on.

B4 the pens off Todos Santos there were hundreds if not thousands of birds that swooped in for the winter in the back bay south of the Estero Beach campground...no longer. They probably pushed on further south.

DENNIS - 6-2-2011 at 12:16 PM

They say that below the pens, the sea bottom is like a moonscape. Nothing growing or alive at the bottom of a toilet.

mtgoat666 - 6-2-2011 at 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Lobsterman
It's amazing to me how misguided the public is in thinking that ocean fish farming is good for the planet. But that's the bunny hugger logic of the internet crowd today that never sets foot outside their door and believes everything their twisted thinking comrades say.

jusst like the misguided souls that refuse to believe that green house gas pollution may adversely change climate

Quote:

Originally posted by DENNIS
They say that below the pens, the sea bottom is like a moonscape.

last i checked the moon was dry and dusty, not wet and muddy

[Edited on 6-2-2011 by mtgoat666]

marv sherrill - 6-2-2011 at 06:04 PM

Wow - quite a response - I'm as much as an ecologist as the next person, but there is a lot of misinformation being spread around in this thread.-
--The fish kept in the pens are not going to mutate instantaneously because they are crowded - they live in tighly packed schools normally, and do not reproduce in the pens. So if they excape not a problem. Farm bred salmon, however might develop genetic problems over generations.
--Bluefin tuna swim 30 mph their entire lives and circumnavigate the pacific ocean yearly. Mexican fishermen are going to catch some, but they are not going to catch them all!!! (Chuzzetti). If the raised ones can reduce the market need to capture the super large breeders, the species will be better off. Fattening up tuna in pens is not a sustainable industry.
--- Dennis - Just because you notice a trend does not mean that it is cause and effect - Seabirds SEEM to be declining - yellowtail SEEM to be not as abundant - perhaps they should stop catching so many yellowtail! Fish poop is a nutrient - so I'm not impressed with what "they say."
How many times have I heard the the Sea of Cortez is fished out - "not like it used to be" Things occur in cycles and ecology is no different - just 3 days ago some of my friends staying next door to my house in Bahia de las Angeles witnessed a huge yellowtail boil 100 yards off shore IN THE BAY
and were able to catch 5 - ave weight 37 pounds -
----Just like anything in life moderation is the key - I realize in Mexico sometimes it becomes rape and pillage, but it also becomes boom and bust. Tuna farming should be regulated - maximum number of pens to reduce pressure on local bait stocks . This pales in comparison to what we have done to atlantic fish species - cod etc.
No I am not a tree hugging animal loving eco N-zi -but I do believe that control of overfishing should be a major commitment of the mexican government - but only act on scientific facts, not hearsay from those who think they know it all. Too often we Gringos want it all and think that Baja exists only for us. Keep an open mind.
"In the end we will conserve that which we love, we will love only that which we understand, and we will understand only that which we are taught" - Baba Dioum
Everybody is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.

[Edited on 6-3-2011 by marv sherrill]

DENNIS - 6-2-2011 at 06:18 PM

No arguement here, Marv. Just more info:

http://www.dulabab.com/food-medicine/commercial-fishing/

krafty - 6-2-2011 at 06:54 PM

Great thread, thanks!

bajario - 6-2-2011 at 07:25 PM

Remember a couple of years ago when some of the penned tuna escaped and swam in circles all the way until they beached themselves in Imperial beach. People plucked them right off the sand.

woody with a view - 6-2-2011 at 07:50 PM

yep.

bajatravelergeorge - 6-2-2011 at 08:06 PM

Not to mention the fact that when times get tough, they abandon the pens and soon they dislodge and float onto the shore. The material they are made of will take over a hundred years to decompose.

It seems like the pens are not being used as much as in years past. I wonder if there's just no bluefin for them to catch. Or no baitfish.

DENNIS - 6-2-2011 at 08:08 PM

Around ten/twelve years back, the pens just south of La Bufadora were buried in a Red Tide. Asphyxiated over 500 ton of Tuna. They had to drag the pens outside and dump them.
What a waste. How does a Red Tide sneak up on you?

woody with a view - 6-2-2011 at 08:13 PM

it doesn't. it's just that the tugs were slower than the bloom.....

bajatravelergeorge - 6-2-2011 at 08:44 PM

Around Ensenada, when their not catching the baitfish for tuna food, their catching it to make fish meal with. I wonder how long the ecosystem can sustain this constant pressure.

BajaNomad - 6-2-2011 at 11:29 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bajario
Remember a couple of years ago when some of the penned tuna escaped and swam in circles all the way until they beached themselves in Imperial beach. People plucked them right off the sand.

Last year:

http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=43784

Also, it made me think of this 2008 story of a boat that crashed itself into the middle of one of the pens:

http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=32693

:lol:

redhilltown - 6-4-2011 at 12:03 AM

I'm with Buzz and Lobsterman on this one. Mostly as to what the hell you feed this many fish? You rape the oceans nearby of sardines and anchovies because that is where the money is.