Land based temperate species mariculture in warm tropical Hawaii

The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) is the only location in the world today where large volumes of warm, surface seawater and cold, deep seawater are distributed onshore for the development of mariculture enterprises of temperate species in a tropical environment. Due to the insight of the State of Hawaii, a seacoast test facility was created in 1976 to provide land and resources to support the research and development needs of the advancement of the Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC) process. In 1981, a twelve inch (0.3m) diameter deep seawater pipeline was successfully deployed offshore of the NELHA facility at Keahole Point. It was soon realized that the cold seawater was a valuable commodity worthy of exploitation. Not long thereafter it was determined that by blending appropriate mixtures of warn and cold seawater together a wide range of marine environments could be created. NELHA also receives the highest level of solar insolation compared to any coastal location in the United States. In order to utilize the potential benefits of these natural resources, NELHA modified its legislative charter in 1985 to allow it to develop commercial enterprises on its property. Over the past 26 years NELHA has become one of the most unique facilities for the development of land based mariculture. Today, 75% of Hawaii´s aqua cultured seafood products are grown at the facility. The range of products cultured at the site includes abalone, edible sea vegetables, shrimp, oysters, clams, fish, spirulina, astaxanthin, biofuels from microalga, and others. Land based mariculture of this type requires innovative techniques and cutting edge technology. Although there are many advantages to growing seafood products on land and in a “winterless” climate, there are also challenges; not the least of which is higher operating costs. Quite often, culturing the feed for the target species to be marketed is more challenging than growing the main prod- ct itself. Due to the higher operating costs, the species cultured must often be marketed at a higher price and to a more affluent consumer. The sale of these niche products can also be significantly influenced by the health of the economies where it is marketed. In order to overcome the challenges of the development of these types of mariculture innovations, the NELHA tenants have had to develop new culturing processes and procedures to assure that their operations will be economically viable and profitable.