The gently rolling hills of Columbia County are rightly famed for the agricultural bounty they produce. The pastured meat and poultry, vegetables, fruit, and cheese produced on area farms are world class.
And the flounder is pretty good too.
Many ocean fisheries are in serious peril as overfishing depletes stocks of popular species and pollution contaminates more and more seafood. Much of the worldโs farmed fish is raised with little oversight, using methods and materials that harm wild species and the larger environment. To address this situation, a company called Local Ocean has recently begun shipping the first of their sustainably farmed ocean fish from a facility just outside of Hudson.
Local Ocean is licensed to grow six species of saltwater fish: sea bream (royal dorado), flounder, yellowtail, and three kinds of sea bass: black, white, and Mediterranean (branzino). Five of these species are in the water, and inside of a year, all six will be in full production. Sea bream and flounder are currently being sold to restaurants. Jonathan Eisenberg, vice president for corporate development, is emphatic: โThis will be the next generation of salt water inland fish farming. We see ourselves as locally fresh, environmentally friendly, and sustainable.โ
Local Ocean has just begun offering their sea bream at six capital region Price Choppers, where it is labeled as โlocally fresh and sustainableโ and sells for $9.99 per pound (a whole fish is about a pound).
Using the original patent for a closed-loop aquaculture system developed at Hebrew University in Israel, Local Ocean developed proprietary technological upgrades to the process so it can function at a commercial scale. And the scale is large: The former factory that houses phase one contains 55 large plastic tanks, each holding 2,850 gallons and teeming with fish. The system is particularly noteworthy because it produces no waste; municipal water is mixed with sea salt (from the Red Sea in Israel) and the water is continually cleaned by an innovative biofiltration system.
In an adjacent area, two large, open rectangular settling tanks, though full of dark, mucky water, are odorless. Colonies of algae and microbes digest the fish waste, and the result is filtered and returned to the tanks; the full volume of each tank is replaced two times per hour with clean water. Other than approximately 1 percent lost to evaporation, no water ever leaves the system and solid waste is consumed in the algae tanks. โWe reproduce what happens in nature, which is very efficient,โ Eisenberg says, explaining the complicated choreography involved in maintaining a balance between the populations of fish and the algae; itโs like two interdependent farms under one roof, and ensuring a steady output requires vigilant attention.
In about two months, Local Ocean will enter phase two: a more than fivefold increase in capacity as a brand-new facility behind the current one comes online. Since the new buildingโmade from polycarbonate panels, and looking like a series of huge greenhousesโis custom built, it will be more efficient, using gravity to reduce pumping and passive solar to cut electricity consumption for lighting and heating. The huge volume of water will act as a massive heat reservoir, meaning that once up to temperature (70ห-73หF) the water will heat the air, and since the water is recirculated no heat is lost in a waste stream. The new building houses 120 tanks, each holding 7,258 gallons, with below-grade settling ponds between each row of tanks. Heating such a large volume of water to Mediterranean temperatures does use a lot of energy, though, so the company is exploring ways to reduce consumption through increased efficiency, and is talking to NYSERDA about possibly adding solar, geothermal, and wind power technologies to further reduce the carbon footprint.
The large plastic tanks have a rotational current, created by the pipe delivering clean water near the top, and the fish swim in constant circles against the gentle flow. They are packed pretty tightly; the efficiencies of the system allow for much more intensive farming than conventional aquaculture. Within a year, their maximum capacity will be 1,000 tons of fish per year. Fingerlings come from a hatchery in New Hampshire, Great Bay Aquaculture, bought by Local Ocean two years ago to gain control of the entire process.
Fish spend the first several weeks in smaller tanks in a separate part of the building, quarantined from the main population, while they are observed and tested for any signs of illness. Water from the tanks is sampled daily, and a veterinarian makes biweekly visits in addition to the constant attention from staff biologists (a biologist is required to be present while any visitors are inside the quarantine area, and there are hand washing stations and bleach mats for shoes at every door). Improvements in the taste, size, and growth rate of the fish are made solely through breeding, not hormones; eggs are harvested from exemplary specimens and sent back to New Hampshire for fertilization and hatching. No prophylactic antibiotics are ever used, as in some other aquaculture systems; sick fish are isolated and treated.
Eisenberg says Local Ocean only plans to deliver within about a six-hour driving radius, to ensure optimal quality. โWeโre redefining freshness within the aquaculture business; most fish is delivered four to five days out of the water. Ours is same-day.โ With phase two just about up and running, Eisenberg says, phase three will be an expansion into other markets with similar facilities around the country; the company has been approached by markets and governments in Florida, Texas, California, and Illinois. Phase three may also include retail outlets at the fish farm, allowing the public to come buy direct from the source.
So how does it taste? I met Gerard Viverito, instructor at the CIA and a national expert on sustainable seafood (see the February 2009 issue of Chronogram) for lunch at Caโ Mea in Hudson to sample it and discuss Local Ocean within the context of global aquaculture. Caโ Mea is one of the restaurants that regularly feature Local Oceanโs fish on the menu, and Chef Massimiliano Cenci kindly invited us to come try the sea bream. Chef Cenci prepared the fish, which in Italy is called orato, several ways: poached, with fresh vegetable salsa; baked with butter and herbs; and origanata, with garlicky breadcrumbs and oregano on top and lemon for squeezing. The flesh is soft and mild, and seems to favor more assertive preparations like the origanata. Cenci feels that โitโs pretty close to the Mediterraneanโthe flavor is really there. And itโs antibiotic free, and very fresh. People like it.โ In countries around the Mediterranean, itโs commonly grilled or roasted whole, often with some herbs and garlic tucked into the cavity. The softness and delicacy of the flesh suggests that this is indeed the best route to take with this fish, though it is also prized for sushi in Japan.
Viverito brought up a key area where sustainability might be an issue: the fish food. Local Ocean uses custom blends of fish feed from a major national supplier, the same one that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation uses for state-run fish hatcheries. Local Ocean does not disclose the contents of the feeds they use, but commercial fish feeds often include fish meal made from smaller Atlantic fish like herring, anchovy, and menhaden (shad or alewife). A problem with using these fish to feed farmed fish is that it removes them from the food chain so that the larger, predatory wild fish whose populations need to recover from overfishing have less to eat.
Particularly troublesome is a method often used for catching the small feed fish: purse seining, using enormous bag-shaped nets that cinch shut around entire schools of fish, and which Viverito describes as โstrip-mining the ocean.โ Some commercial fish food also contains byproducts from industrial pork and poultry operations.
Viveritoโs verdict? โThey have a phenomenal waste-recovery program, and their intentions are good. Thereโs room for improvement, but this is about as good as aquaculture gets right now.โ Eisenberg agrees: โWeโre the best thatโs out there. Weโre allowing depleted fish stocks to replenish, and our fish are the cleanest available anywhere.โ
While this is a factory farm, Local Ocean avoids many of the problems associated with other aquaculture operations. They discharge no waste at all, recycling all of the water and solid waste through their biofilter system. Their fish have negligible quantities of the mercury and other toxic metals that represent a serious problem in wild fish populations, and are hormone and antibiotic free. The company also brings 40 jobs to the Hudson area, and plans to add 10 more in the coming year, which is a real benefit to the local economy. And itโs not insignificant that sashimi-fresh fish will soon be available to anyone within range of a supermarket, and at a reasonable cost since it didnโt travel on a plane.
Considering the state of the oceans, we should be glad that people are working to bring more sustainable seafood to our tables. Itโs pretty clear that this endeavor has been designed conscientiously, and that theyโre doing the best they can given the larger issues surrounding the food system right now. And since farms like this may very well be the future of seafood, we owe it to ourselves to engage with this farm as we would with any other local source, learning more about it and building a relationship with producer and product alike.
This article appears in September 2010.
