Neil Sims and his colleagues at Kampachi Farms are refining methods for producing sustainable, scalable, and (most importantly) delicious fish. Sims believes that the best way to improve the environment is to use market tools; to provide economic incentives to achieve the ecological imperatives.Sims began as a fisheries biologist, managing commercial fisheries and working to educate fishermen on how to keep fish populations healthy for multiple generations. He quickly learned that the incentives in commercial fisheries are to catch as many fish as possible, as quickly as possible. So now he works to create a fish farming model that provides sustainable and scalable sources of seafood that have a minimal environmental footprint. Sims has run multiple research projects to test different technologies for fish farms, which he called the Velella Projects. Fishermen in Hawaii learned that the Velella’s floating fish pens were a boon for the local fishing industry. Boats fishing around the Velella Gamma array with feed barge and buoy in foreground.© Kampachi Farms, Photo credit: Neil Anthony SimsThe Velella fish cages attracted tuna, mahi-mahi, and marlin. The next one (Velella Project Epsilon) will be deployed off the coast of Sarasota, Florida in 2020. Wild fish surround the Kampachi fish cage.© Kampachi Farms, Photo credit: Rick DeckerThese farms have used a species known locally as Kahala-- a fish that was thrown back if caught in the wild-- and raised them into tasty Kampachi.Lockheed Martin supported the early research. Some of the Lockheed engineers launched Forever Oceans to continue to revolutionize mariculture.Macro-algae (aka seaweed) cultivation has huge potential to provide feed for fish and animals because it doesn’t require land, fresh water, or fertilizer, unlike crops grown on land. Seaweed farms can absorb the excess nutrients in the water that cause dead zones and pull carbon dioxide out of the water. Ocean acidification has a catastrophic impact on ocean ecosystems.“Off-shore macro-algae culture is the only way that we can harness entrepreneurial incentive (the profit motive) to counter ocean acidification,” Sims says. “If someone else has to pay for it, it’s not scalable.''Please subscribe on Apple | Android | Google | Spotify | Carly Jackson clean The Seaweed Solution with Dr. Ricardo Radulovich https://www.seasteading.org/the-seaweed-solution-with-dr-ricardo-radulovich/ Thu, 03 Oct 2019 http://www.seasteading.org/?p=32452 Agriculture on land may not be able to keep up with the demand for food. We need alternative choices of food and animal feed. The solution can be found in cultivating seaweed. Agriculture on land may not be able to keep up with the demand for food. We need alternative choices of food and animal feed. The solution can be found in cultivating seaweed. Dr. Ricardo Radulovich is a professor at the University of Costa Rica and founder of Aquafarms+. He is working to ensure food security for future generations. Agriculture on land may not be able to keep up with the demand for food. We need alternative choices of food and animal feed. The solution can be found in cultivating seaweed.Starting a seaweed farm can help clean the water of excess nutrients that usually comes from runoff from land-based agriculture. Seaweeds are used in numerous products including bread, ice cream, toothpaste, tortilla chips and beer. Fishermen in traditional fishing communities can incorporate seaweed cultivation to help diversify their income. Some seaweeds are rich in iron, fiber, magnesium and vitamins.Preparing bread with 5% seaweed meal.Bread baked with 5% seaweed meal.“There is no seaweed market because there is no production and there is no production because there is no market,” Dr. Radulovich says in this episode. The challenge is to work on both sides, increase supply and demand.A good summary of Dr. Radulovich’s work is available in this article by Radical Social Entrepreneurs.Dr. Radulovich’s presentation at the 2012 Seasteading Conference is available here.We also discuss how seaweed is one component of a closed-loop system that also includes bi-valves like mussels to improve biodiversity in the ecosystem. Read the study, “Tropical seaweeds for human food, their cultivation and its effect on biodiversity enrichment.”Please subscribe on Apple | Android | Google | Spotify | YouTube | RSSFor feedback and questions, email [email protected]To sponsor future episodes, visit Podcast Sponsorship.