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Researchers at the University of Hawaii at Hilo are hoping to achieve critical mass in what could be a breakthrough industry for the state: land-based aquaculture.
“Hawaii could be leading the entire world in marine fish production,” said Maria Haws, director of the university’s Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resources Center site in Keaukaha.
The center began amplifying its efforts to research land-based systems about 5-1/2 years ago, with the arrival of assistant professor Armando Garcia-Ortega, who had done similar marine research in Mexico, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reported.
The most familiar aquaculture involves offshore cages, which put large amounts of fish waste into the water. With land-based systems, the waste can be cleaned out of a tank and used as fertilizer for plants.
While the fertilizer is a useful byproduct, the fish are the focus, Garcia-Ortega said Wednesday.
In Hawaii, Garcia- Ortega said, “We are importing more than half of the seafood we are eating … so we are trying to let people know the importance of getting that reversed.”
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, more than 90 percent of seafood consumed nationwide is imported.
The center also hopes to perfect its own techniques enough that it can raise young fingerling fish to provide new farmers starting their own aquaculture systems.