{"id":243,"date":"2010-11-19T12:31:05","date_gmt":"2010-11-19T15:31:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/?p=243"},"modified":"2010-11-19T12:34:24","modified_gmt":"2010-11-19T15:34:24","slug":"aquaculture-alternatives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/?p=243","title":{"rendered":"Aquaculture alternatives"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fish farm boasts sustainability<\/h2>\n

This reprint from the Chronicle-Herald provides an approach to aquaculture that seems sustainable and environmentally sound. It is a land based operation.<\/p>\n

Hants County firm markets European sea bass from land based operation<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>Fri, Nov 19, 2010\u00a0By BRUCE ERSKINE Business Reporter <\/em>berskine@herald.ca)<\/em><\/p>\n

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A Hants County\u00a0aquaculture operation is set to market North America\u2019s first sustainably grown European sea bass.\u00a0“We\u2019re giving the fish an optimal environment,” Jeremy Lee, president of Sustainable Fish Farming Canada Ltd. in Centre Burlington, said Thursday in an interview. “We re-create the natural environment by the controls of our system.”<\/span><\/div>\n

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The land-based fish farm known as Sustainable Blue is on 22 hectares of woodland near Windsor. It uses proprietary technology developed in England by Lee, a native of the United Kingdom, to clean, recycle and regulate 500 metric tonnes of water per hour to strict tolerances.\u00a0“We go out of our way to farm sustainably.” Lee said all the operation\u2019s incoming water is sterilized and all the organic waste from the fish is collected and held on land. “We don\u2019t discharge effluent.” The organic material will be used as fertilizer.<\/span><\/div>\n

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The contained aquaculture operation has no impact on the marine environment, which has become something of a regional issue with the outbreak of sea lice in salmon farmed in cages off the New Brunswick coast. Lee wouldn\u2019t comment on the sea lice problem specifically, but he said his firm\u2019s technology keeps its fish disease-free without using chemicals or drugs. “We don\u2019t have sea lice or any other diseases in our farms.”<\/span><\/div>\n

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Lee said he and his partners decided to establish the business in Nova Scotia because of the tremendous potential of the North American market, which has become increasingly interested in sustainable local foods. “We can grow sea bass that others can\u2019t.” He said the firmly textured, mildly flavoured fish, also known as Mediterranean sea bass, is popular in Europe. “It\u2019s a good eating fish.” <\/span><\/div>\n

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The company operates nine tanks that can produce 60 to 100 metric tonnes of fish per year. The business has been under development for 18 months and has been raising fish for the past year.”We\u2019re just coming to market now.” Lee said the primary markets for the fish are restaurants and hotels. The operation has four employees, with plans to add two more.<\/span><\/div>\n

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The venture has received tremendous support from local business people such as Michael Howell, the well-known chef-owner of Tempest restaurant in Wolfville. “It plays to all his principles \u2014 good quality, local, sustainable,” said Lee. Howell said European sea bass was one of the first fish he cooked while training as a chef in Chicago more than 17 years ago. “I fell in love with it,” he said in an interview Thursday. “I\u2019ve cooked with it a long time.”<\/span>Howell said farmed sea bass can have a muddy flavour, but he described the Hants County fish, which will be on his menu soon, as beautiful. “It has a pristinely sweet flavour.”<\/span><\/div>\n

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The aquaculture operation has also received support from the province in the form of a $1.45-million loan through the Economic and Rural Development Department. “The atmosphere here is very good,” said Lee.He said he hopes to see the business, which is conducting striped bass trials, sustain itself and grow.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fish farm boasts sustainability This reprint from the Chronicle-Herald provides an approach to aquaculture that seems sustainable and environmentally sound. It is a land based operation. Hants County firm markets European sea bass from land based operation Fri, Nov 19, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,5,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aquaculture","category-coastal-issues","category-for-the-record"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=243"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":245,"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243\/revisions\/245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.trepa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}