They call the cages Oceanspheres. They’d have the diameter of half a football field. (Photo courtesy of Hawaii Oceanic Technology)
A company in Hawaii wants to build the world’s first commercial bigeye tuna farm. Bigeye tuna is also known as ahi and it’s a popular fish for sushi. Rebecca Williams has more:
Transcript
A company in Hawaii wants to build the world’s first commercial bigeye tuna farm. Bigeye tuna is also known as ahi and it’s a popular fish for sushi. Rebecca Williams has more:
Bigeye tuna are getting overfished in the wild.
So a company called Hawaii Oceanic Technology wants to raise tuna in giant underwater cages off the coast of Hawaii.
They call the cages Oceanspheres. They’d have the diameter of half a football field.
Bill Spencer is president and CEO of the company. He says they’ll raise 20,000 fish in each cage. The tuna will get up to 100 pounds each.
“They’re typically a schooling type fish so they’d be able to swim around in the Oceansphere so we think that would give them the ability to get the kind of muscle tone that would be appreciated by the consumers.”
There are real concerns about pollution and that fish will escape and spread disease to wild fish.
Spencer says ocean currents will sweep away fish feces so they won’t concentrate, and he says the cages are built so tuna can’t escape.
For The Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.