“The best case scenario,” says George Nardi of his Atlantic cod aquaculture venture in Frenchman Bay, “is pretty simple: We’ll be able to grow, harvest and sell fish for more money than it costs us.” That, he adds, would lay the groundwork for expanding this experimental project into a full-fledged industry.
The only other cod grow-out trial in Maine was conducted in Cobscook Bay in 2004-2005, but that venture ended after one year when the fin fish aquaculture industry reorganized.
Nardi is co-founder of Great Bay Aquaculture, a fin fish aquaculture firm based in Portsmouth, N.H. For nine years, Great Bay has been growing out juvenile cod in offshore waters off the Isle of Shoals in partnership with University of New Hampshire.
When Great Bay searched for a grow-out site in Maine, it learned about James West’s 35.66-acre site in Frenchman Bay off Sorrento, site of a previous salmon farm. West, who lobsters and drags for mussels and is partner in Eastern Maine Mussel Co. in Hancock, says he had been using the site since 2002 on and off to raise mussels, but that he’d lost a lot of gear in a storm.
After Great Bay inquired in 2008 about using part of his site for cod grow out, West, whose son is the fifth-generation fisherman in his family, says he talked around with local fishermen to see what they thought about reviving fin fish aquaculture in the area. “No one thought it would be a problem,” he says, “so I went ahead.”
He and Great Bay entered into an agreement to apply jointly for a three-year experimental lease within West’s site. Great Bay would use 1.866 acres of the existing site. In June 2008, the company stocked 100,000 Atlantic cod juveniles in two of three net pens. Nardi says the cod at the site are healthy and thriving. “We’re anxious to do a weigh-in,” he says, “and see where we are based on projections.”
This May, Nardi and West applied as co-lessees to expand the 1.866 lease to a standard 10-year lease for the full 35.66 acres. Diantha Robinson, the state Department of Marine Resources aquaculture hearings officer, says not a single person voiced opposition at the hearing to consider the application. The expanded lease was approved.
In early June this year, Nardi said the company had begun to stock a new batch of cod juveniles and would sort the original batch. Cod at the site was hatched at Great Bay from native brood stock, and then sent to the nursery at the Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research in Taunton to grow to net pen size. The new lease allows a total of 10 cages at the site. One of these, Nardi says, may be an Aquapod, an intriguing spherical net pen that looks like it was designed by Buckminster Fuller.
Nardi believes the first group of fish will be ready for harvesting in September. At the beginning, while the harvest is smaller, the company will tap the live fish market in Boston and New York City. If it seems economically feasible, they might also produce fish for the organic market, but that, he says, would require importing organic feed. “If there’s a good enough premium, we’ll think about it in the future,” he says.
The expanded lease allows West to raise mussels at the site. He says he hopes to have some started by next year, either with raft or long line culture; Nardi also plans to put some in. In addition to cod, the permit allows aquaculture of three types of seaweed and halibut (which Nardi would use if not enough cod juveniles were available).
Sebastian Belle, director of Maine Aquaculture Association, explained such multi-tropic culture of shellfish, seaweed and fish has been shown to benefit each species in different ways. “The different species consume energy at different levels,” he explains. “Fin fish use external sources of food; the shellfish and seaweed remove nutrients that are generated by fish farming. It’s a concept that has been used in China for hundreds of years.”
Nardi notes that this synergistic process lowers the carbon footprint of the site because the shellfish reduce nitrogen and phosphorus, reducing environmental impact. “However,” he cautions, “we have to understand that there are not negative impacts as well. It still needs to be investigated.”
Nardi’s company has developed a new feed for the cod. The formula is considered more eco-friendly because plant protein replaces some of the herring and anchovy fish meal, thus helping to protect those stocks. He says experiments have shown that cod thrive on the modified feed.
In the future, the company intends to use seaweed as the plant protein, but at this time, it doesn’t have a production facility to grow it. He is talking with Maine Sea Vegetables about a possible cooperative venture.
Access to the cod farm is a complex issue because Sorrento does not have a commercial dock. West, Nardi and Belle says they hope that in the future traditional fishermen and aquaculture farmers will work together to establish a shared infrastructure. While the cod project remains fairly small, Great Bay can go to different places for access to serve different needs. The company has been using the Sorrento pier, the boatyard in Hancock, West Cove, and the airport in Taunton, and, he added, they may have to cross the bay to Bar Harbor. They rent the old Sorrento firehouse to store feed and provide office space.
The time will come, says Nardi, when expansion of the industry will depend on having adequate infrastructure support for moving fish, feed and equipment, and for storage and processing. “But,” he adds, “first we have to prove that cod aquaculture can be a viable industry in Maine waters.”