RAS Talk

Vertical Oceans is a unique recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) for shrimp because it touts itself to be modular, has zero discharge and is almost 94 per cent automated by a complex algorithm. Co-founder and chief executive, John Diener, talks about how he's harnessing his team's expertise in data science and bioinformatics to solve traditional shrimp farming's environmental challenges. 

Florida is home to both red drum fish and red mangroves. Megan Sorby, CEO and founder of Pine Island Redfish, has a vision to sustainably farm both in her new 150-acre RAS project. She sits down with Jean Ko Din and Justin Henry about her experience finding an aquaculture community in the state and her hopes to bring more RAS innovation to the industry.

Viking Aqua wants to build the "next generation RAS for Atlantic salmon," planning a 33,000-ton facility in Skipavika, Norway. In this episode, Borghild Hillestad shares how she plays a key role as director of fish welfare in the early design/engineering phase. She also shares the company's plans to establish a Fish Welfare Index that will set parameters for the facility’s artificial intelligence (AI) monitoring system.

Although reconstruction in the area is over, Fukushima continues to live with the aftermath of the 2011 nuclear accident and its impact on its reputation. Initial ARK Inc.prototypes became a new way to revitalize the small Japanese town's seafood industry. Co-founder Yosuke Kurihara offers a unique take on recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) technology with a micro-scale unit that he hopes will be a new take on "farm to table."

Sara Rademaker is the founder and CEO of American Unagi, a glass eel recirculating aquaculture farm in Maine. She shares the journey of how she started the company from a small RAS system in the basement of her home, to an incubator startup, to now a commercial-scale farm to grow eel domestically.

Hatchery International hosted its first World Trout Culture Summit on Oct. 18, 2023. The virtual event gathered experts across the aquaculture industry to talk about environmentally sustainable trout culture and production. In this special episode of RAS Talk, we share the live recording from a panel of trout RAS experts to talk about the benefits and challenges of recirculating systems, from restocking rainbow and brown trout to commercial farms growing trending species like Steelhead. What is this technology's future role and potential for trout in both enhancement fisheries and aquaculture?

The panel was moderated by David Kuhn, associate professor at Virginia Tech.

Panelists included:

This episode was recorded about a month after The Center for Responsible Seafood (TCRS) hosted its inaugural Shrimp Summit (July 24-26, 2023) at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. TCRS President George Chamberlain shares his reflections on the global shrimp industry and how recirculating aquaculture technology can play a role in its future.

Sustainable Blue has captured Washington State's interest for its zero wastewater discharge system for Atlantic salmon. David Roberts, chief sustainability officer, talks about the origins of its first facility in Nova Scotia, Canada and hints at the company's plans for a new facility in the United States. Roberts says that sustainability must be incorporated into all aspects of a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) and in this episode, he shares how the company is working to fulfill the promise of its name while also being profitable.

Just 20 mins. from downtown Los Angeles, Steve Sutton established an indoor shrimp RAS farm with a mission to grow clean shrimp products for the U.S. market. In this episode, Steve tells the story of how shrimp farming in Thailand informed his vision for TransparentSea to become a sustainable and profitable farming operation in California.

Salmon Evolution is one of the few success stories that the RAS industry can point to and as it looks ahead to the next phase, CEO Trond Håkon Schaug-Pettersen shared some insights that led to the company’s success so far. He talked about harnessing the simplicity of a partial reuse system, bringing the lessons of Phase One to its next expansions and his confidence in the company’s future.

The RAS industry is not for the faint of heart. The purpose of this “Lessons learned” keynote is to identify those challenges we are facing right now and sharing experiences of how to solve these problems. At RASTECH 2023, we wanted to talk about the mistakes and the setbacks, but always in the spirit of learning how to progress and develop from them.

Panelists:

Rodrigo Mezerhane is the senior project manager at Blue Star Foods in the United States and his latest project is an interesting venture into a unique species in a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS). Atlantic blue crabs are cannibalistic which makes juvenile survival rates in captivity very low. This project's solution is to capture Atlantic blue crabs from local fishermen and raise the stock through its late molting stage, instead of raising it in land from its early stages. But this doesn't mean the species still doesn't come with challenges. Rodrigo shares the meticulous challenge of establishing good Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in order for the facility to raise the blue crabs to be ready and harvested for consumers. 

After cultivating his genomics expertise in the United States and in Norway, Woo-Jai Lee returns to his homeland in South Korea to start an olive flounder RAS project in Goheung. Raising olive flounder, a.k.a. Japanese halibut, in a recirculating aquaculture system has its unique challenges. BlueGen founder & CEO Woo-Jai shares the challenges and innovations of building a 1,700 MT/year facility for this flatfish marine species.

More commercial-size RAS projects are propping up in Japan. In this episode, we get an inside look at one of the largest projects with Dharma Rajeswaran, chief operations officer at Proximar Seafood. He shares about his long history in salmon farming, from traditional net pens in Norway to recirculating aquaculture in Atlantic Sapphire.

It truly takes a village to raise the next generation of recirculating aquaculture farmers. Kevin Hoffman is the instructor and program manager for Onalaska High School’s aquaculture program in Washington State, United States. Through his hands-on program, students learn many practical skills, including feeding, sampling, fish husbandry, construction and maintenance. In this episode, Kevin shares how he grew this program to what it is today and how others can do the same.

Last July, Kingfish Maine was forced to go head-to-head against an anti-aquaculture group that wanted to put a stop to all aquaculture development in Jonesport, Maine, USA. The aquaculture moratorium was put to a vote and local residents rejected the proposal 201 to 91. Now that the road is clear for the company to begin construction, Dianna Fletcher, communications consultant, shares how the company earned its social license through targeted public relations strategies.

When the island country of Singapore imports more than 90 per cent of its food supply, this new RAS project hopes to be a local solution. Esben Johnsen is the chief executive officer of Singapore RAS. Coming from Norway’s oil and gas industry, he understands the power and possibilities of land-based aquaculture.

Lago Sofia’s chief executive and general manager, Miguel Portus O., shares the company’s philosophy in making the most of all its resources, not just its recirculating water at its Atlantic salmon smolt RAS facility in Chile. For example, the company collects plastics from partner companies to use as materials to build palettes for its facility. They also collect wood from its feed pallets to create furniture for local partners. Portus also gives new insight to its first aquaponics project in the United States.

Atlantic Sapphire CEO Johan Andreassen called 2021 the company’s “Annus Horribilis.” From losing the chillers in Miami to the devastating fire in Denmark, Atlantic Sapphire made headlines for mass mortalities caused by a chain of unfortunate events. In this episode, Andreassen talks to our co-hosts, Jean Ko Din and Brian Vinci, about lessons learned from last year and how the company plans to move forward in transforming the industry’s future.

Vismar Aqua is a Ukrainian RAS design firm that built the largest RAS shrimp farm in Europe, Merman’s House. When Russia’s invasion forced the farm to close after only four months in operation, the company decided to donate its first batches of shrimp to the Ukrainian army. Founder and chief technology officer, Lubomir Haidamaka, sits down with co-hosts, Jean Ko Din and Brian Vinci, to share his story from his office in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Aquaponics is often described as the combination of recirculating aquaculture with hydroponics. Many favour it as the ultimate circular food production system, utilizing waste from the production of fish to be used as nutrients for the production of plants like leafy greens and tomatoes. In our world today, the aquaponics model is still appealing and is an example of the circular food systems that we’ll need for a sustainable future. Currently, there are a few moderate to large aquaponics operations running in the U.S.: Superior Fresh in Wisconsin, Springworks Farm in Maine, and Traders Hill Farm in Florida. In this episode of RAS Talk, co-host Brian Vinci, director of the Conservation Fund’s Freshwater Institute, sat down to talk all things aquaponics with Tracy Nazzaro, principal and president for Traders Hill Farm.

Past RAS Talk episodes have had a particular focus on various salmon and trout species because they’re known to be some of the more ‘established’

aquaculture species in Europe and North America. However, globally, barramundi, also known as Asian sea bass, is an aquaculture-established species. Production is

especially established in Australia, where MainStream Aquaculture, said to have the largest warm water aquaculture farm of its type and is also the largest Barramundi

fingerling supplier in Australia and the world, has its five facilities. In the final RAS Talk episode of 2021, Dr. Paul Harrison, co-founder and chief scientist at MainStream

Aquaculture gives listeners a peak into the aquaculture industry in Australia and MainStream Aquaculture’s operations.

Looking to raise awareness and educate Americans of the benefits of regularly eating seafood to achieve a healthier diet, as well as advocate for the recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) sector and aquaculture industry to achieve an overall more environmentally-friendly and sustainable seafood industry, the Seafood Nutrition Partnership’s (SNP’s) Founder, Linda Cornish, sat down with hosts, Catarina Muia and Brian Vinci for this episode of RAS Talk. Linda discussed the important goals the SNP is looking to achieve, and how the RAS sector and aquaculture industries can help achieve these goals.

Public fish hatcheries have a long history in North America, with many culture methods and innovations used in today’s commercial aquaculture industry, first developed at public fish hatcheries. This includes water reuse. While water reuse was initially very basic, as the understanding of fish biology and water quality increased, so did the ways in which water was treated for reuse. Some of the first water reuse systems that included a biofilter and oxygenation, were built at public fish hatcheries. These basic RAS were predecessors to the intensive RAS used in today’s commercial operations. There are a good number of water reuse systems and intensive RAS at public fish hatcheries today, but few public fish hatchery programs have adopted intensive RAS like the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. During this episode of RAS Talk, Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Jeff Milton, Sport Fish Hatchery program supervisor, and Travis Hyer, Ruth Burnett Sport Fish Hatchery manager, give us some insight on how their public hatcheries have successfully moved toward RAS.

The RAS-produced Atlantic salmon sector has come a long way since its inception in the late 1990s, with the industry has continuously striving for success. However, it took time to get the technology there, with RAS technological components evolving greatly in the past 20-23 years. Today, we continue to improve technology and RAS facilities to produce high-quality Atlantic salmon, but must look at the biology of Atlantic salmon as well, focusing on genetic improvements to the eggs to create quality stock, as well as avoid diseases, mass mortalities, and early maturation. In this episode of RAS Talk, co-hosts Catarina Muia and Brian Vinci speak with Dr. Jónas Jónasson, Production Director at BMK Genetics & CEO at Benchmark Genetics Iceland, and Christopher Good, Director of Research at the Conservation Fund Freshwater Institute, to see how the industry is prioritizing and moving forward with the improvements of Atlantic salmon genetics.

With much talk, research and new projects circulating the land-based shrimp production sector, RAS Talk was curious to gain perspective from a shrimp recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) professional. Patrick Wood, global consultant and expert on shrimp production technology and innovation, sat down with RAS Talk hosts Catarina Muia and Brian Vinci, to discuss the current technologies being utilized in the land-based shrimp production sector including RAS technologies, the necessary areas of improvement in RAS for shrimp production, where the land-based shrimp production industry is headed, and more.

This week, RAS Talk host Brian Vinci had the opportunity to speak with Yonathan Zohar, Professor and Chair of the Department of Marine Biotechnology at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET), University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Director, Aquaculture Research Center at IMET, as well as Program Leader of Recirculating Aquaculture Salmon Network (RAS-N). With more than 40 years in the marine biology industry, Yonathan discusses the use and combination of biotechnology with RAStech, the importance of project RAS-N and its potential outcomes, as well as the projects he and his team have had the opportunity to work on, at IMET.

In this episode, hosts Mari-Len De Guzman and Brian Vinci talk with Árni Páll Einarsson, CEO of Matorka, a pioneer in land-based production of arctic char based in Grindavik, Iceland. Einarsson talks about his company’s journey through its RAS production and the opportunities for sustainable seafood production in Iceland.

Guest: Árni Páll Einarsson, CEO, Matorka

Bridging the gap between seafood producers and consumers is key to pushing the agenda of sustainability in the aquaculture industry. In this episode, hosts Brian Vinci and Mari-Len De Guzman speak with sustainable seafood advocate Jennifer Bushman about some of the practical and meaningful ways seafood producers can engage their consumers.

Feeds are a critical component of any RAS production environment – it can make or break the health of both fish and systems. This episode provides a variety of perspectives when it comes to fish feeds in closed, containment, land-based aquaculture. Co-hosts Mari-Len De Guzman and Brian Vinci hash out the details of diets made for RAS.

Guests:

Kim Schøn Ekmann, senior product developer, BioMar

George Nardi, VP of aquaculture services, Innovasea

John Ng, president, Hudson Valley Fish Farm

Featuring the tech brains behind the innovative startup ReelData, this episode discusses the various applications of artificial intelligence and machine learning to aquaculture, particularly in land-based farming. ReelDate CEO Mathew Zimola and CTO Hossein Salimian are the guests for this high-tech conversation.

RAS Talk hosts Mari-Len De Guzman and Brian Vinci talk about the year that was and the year ahead. From COVID-19 and RAS milestones to trends in sustainable food production systems and technologies, this podcast episode provides a rundown on the most important developments in 2020 and what to look forward to in 2021.

In this RAS Talk episode hosts Mari-Len De Guzman and Brian Vinci talk about the various aspects of investing in RAS. It’s an engaging discussion about investors’ perspectives in RAS technology and land-based aquaculture, the risks and the opportunities as well as their outlook on the sector.

Guests:

Maggie Fried, Head of the Oceans and Aquaculture Investor Consortium, CREO Syndicate

Frank van Roest, Investment Director, Aqua Spark

RAS engineering and design specialist Marc Sorensen takes us through the history and evolution of RAS in aquaculture. Co-host Brian Vinci also provides his insights on the beginnings of RAS technology. In this episode, we get into the technical details of the why, the how, as well as the current and emerging challenges involved in designing and operating a recirculating aquaculture system.

Guest: Marc Sorensen, president, Sorensen Engineering Ltd.

It started out as a small RAS operation in his home basement, today founder Eric Pedersen’s Ideal Fish is successfully producing Branzino for the domestic market. We talk to Pedersen and Ideal Fish’s sales and marketing director James MacKnight about the company’s journey, its innovative strategies to reach the market, and its quest to educate the consumers about RAS-grown fish.

Guests: Eric Pedersen, president and CEO, Ideal Fish, and James MacKnight, sales and marketing director, Ideal Fish

Women account for 70 percent of the world’s seafood workers. However, many of them work in entry level, low-paying jobs and very few are leadership roles. Is the industry paying enough attention to diversity in the aquaculture industry? Is gender diversity playing a factor into the design of RAS facilities? What resources exist for women in aquaculture for skills development and training that will allow them to move into leadership roles? These questions are more are discussed in this episode of RAS Talk.

Co-host: Anna DiCocco, fish culture technician, Freshwater Institute

Guests: Astrid Buran Holan, head of innovation, land-based, ScaleAQ and Christi Dimon, farm operator, Bluehouse Miami, Atlantic Sapphire

The aquaculture industry continues to face challenges brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic. From social distancing protocols to mandatory work-from-home policies, how are RAS producers managing the day-to-day farm operations in this new norm? This episode is a discussion on Covid-19 and the impact it's having on RAS operations, with hosts Mari-Len De Guzman and Brian Vinci, and guests from New York-based Hudson Valley Fish Farms: John Ng, CEO, and Brittany Peachey, aquaculture operations manager.

As RAS operations across the world ramp up, it is increasingly important to effectively address off-flavour issues in RAS-grown fish. The research is available for effective mitigation measures and many RAS producers are successfully implementing these recommendations. Justin Henry, director of aquaculture at Habitat Life, and John Davidson, research scientist at the Freshwater Institute, discuss some best practice in mitigating off-flavours.

The potential of RAS for sustainability and financial gains is making it an appealing proposition for investors. At the recent Aquaculture America conference in Honolulu, host Mari-Len De Guzman sat down with Kimberley Player, director of research at Portland, Oregon-based Equilibrium Capital, discussing the opportunities and challenges for investments within the RAS value chain.

All eyes are on Maine as an emerging destination for RAS development projects. In this episode, Erik Heim, president of Nordic Aquafarms, takes us through the strategies and factors that led his company to choose Maine as the site for its proposed US$500-million Atlantic salmon RAS farm, as well as the challenges and lessons learned through the process.

Do you have what it takes to work in a RAS operation? This episode of RAS Talk tackles the current challenges as well as strategies for hiring the right people. Hosts Mari-Len De Guzman and Brian Vinci talk with Cristina Espejo, head of HR at Atlantic Sapphire in Miami, Florida, and Kirk Havercroft, CEO of Sustainable Blue in Nova Scotia, Canada. These two companies are not just investing in the technology, but more importantly, they are investing in their people to develop a highly-skilled and competent RAS workforce.