Moi farm seeks airport site

The founder of Hawaii’s first commercial open-ocean fish farm plans to get back into the business after the initial venture went belly-up.

Randy Cates is proposing to lease 75 acres of state marine waters adjacent to Honolulu Airport’s reef runway to raise moi in submerged cages.

Cates hopes to raise 1.5 million tons of fish annually doing business as Mamala Bay Seafood LLC, and filed a draft environmental assessment for the project published Tuesday by the state Office of Environmental Quality Control.

The farm is projected to cost $5 million and generate $6.3 million in annual sales at full production within three years.

Mamala Bay Seafood aims to begin raising fish on the site by July 2015 if a finalized environmental assessment is approved and a lease with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, along with other permits, is obtained, the report said.

If successfully launched, Mamala Bay Seafood would represent a return to moi farming for Cates, a former commercial fisherman who started Cates International, a moi farm business, 2 miles off Ewa Beach in 2000.

Cates had initial success raising and selling moi, a species of fish once raised in fishponds and reserved for Hawaiian royalty. But after partnering with AOL founder Steve Case to expand the business, the company foundered.

Case acquired a controlling 51 percent stake in the moi farm in 2006 through investment firm Visionary LLCand re-branded the company Hukilau Foods.

However, the $13 million expansion plan, which included building a hatchery and deploying bigger fish cages to boost moi production fourfold to 5 million pounds a year, ran into difficulties, and Hukilau filed for bankruptcy in 2010. A plan to restructure Hukilau’s finances and resume operations was aborted about two years ago.

Cates blamed Case’s company for the demise, and filed a lawsuit against Visionary that led to Cates being removed as Hukilau president shortly before the bankruptcy. The lawsuit was later settled, and called for Cates receiving some Hukilau assets.

Cates said he learned valuable lessons about raising fish and doing business with investors that will help him with Mamala Bay Seafood.

"Ihave a lot more knowledge about how to do this than the first time,"he said. "I’m in a far better situation today than Iwas in 2000."

One of the lessons was having the farm closer to land.Cates said it took a long boat ride to get to his first farm, and that a near-shore site will be more economical.

The proposed new farm site is a pit roughly 50 feet deep that was dredged to help build the reef runway in the 1970s. The environmental report said the site has a good current, a silt-laden bottom and minimal public use that make it attractive for a fish farm.

"There’s no other site like it in Hawaii,"Cates said."It offers a great place to grow fish."

A couple of potential issues with the site could be its proximity to the runway and designation as part of a thrill craft recreation area.

Ford Fuchigami, deputy director of the state Department of Transportation Airports Division, said in written comments on the farm plan that fish cages would hamper potential water rescue operations and that the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Security Administration should be contacted.

"We believe the proposed area is a restricted area, where only marine biologists are allowed to conduct their studies,"Fuchigami wrote.

He also said his department is concerned about moi cages attracting fish-eating birds to the area and posing a danger for planes.

Aquaculture Planning & Advocacy LLC, a consulting firm that prepared the draft environmental report for Mamala Bay Seafood, said in the report that cages will be covered with nets that deter any birds from visiting.

"The (farm) should not create habitat that will attract sea and shore birds of any kind to the reef runway area,"the report said.

The report also addressed another potential conflict with the site being part of an 867-acre recreational thrill craft zone. Mamala Bay Seafood has discussed with DLNR’s Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation about possibly removing the proposed farm site from the recreation zone and providing additional area with better waves as a replacement.

Mamala Bay Seafood said it needs to restrict public access — including boating, thrill craft use, fishing and diving — around cages for safety, security and liability issues.

Each cage, which is 114 feet in diameter and made of copper-alloy netting, features a collar around the rim of the cage at the surface with a walkway and hand railing that serves as a work platform.

The report said the farm will employ nine people on top of six staff already with Mamala Bay Seafood, and that the company will focus on supplying the local market with moi before considering exporting.

Wild moi populations are small and too dispersed to be regularly targeted by commercial fishing, the report noted.

The report said existing marine life in the area should not be negatively affected by waste from the farm given water currents and the planned density of fish in the cages.

Permits needed for the proposed farm include a state Conservation District Use permit, a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System permit and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit.

Comments are being accepted on the draft environmental assessment until Aug. 7. For more information visit health.hawaii.gov/oeqc.