Blue Ocean Mariculture: Championing Ethical and Sustainable Ocean Farming
The vastness of the open ocean resonates with responsibility for Blue Ocean Mariculture. As trailblazers in open ocean aquaculture, they have embraced their unique role with utmost seriousness, not just as operational farmers but as living demonstrations of what's achievable. From their inception in 2001, their vision was clear: to address food security issues and community needs, all while maintaining an uncompromised standard of environmental, social, and economic responsibility. The declining fish catches have heightened the need for sustainable aquaculture solutions, and Blue Ocean Mariculture offers consistency in flavor, price, and availability. Passion for the ocean binds their team, propelling them towards the highest quality and safety standards. With NELHA as a partner, sharing knowledge and mutual growth is a shared journey, underlining Blue Ocean's commitment to sustainability and excellence.
Because Blue Ocean Mariculture is the only open ocean aquaculture farm growing fin fish in the US, all eyes are upon us. We get legislators, we get academia, we get our customers who all want to come and see what we're doing. So we take our responsibility as not just an operating farm, but a demonstration farm of what's possible very seriously.
Our farm started in 2001. We had a vision that we could not only grow aquaculture fish here in Hawaii and address food security issues, address needs of the community, but we could also do so in a way that was environmentally and socially responsible as well as economically viable. Since 2011, there's been a 72% reduction in mahi catches. here's been a 58% reduction in ono catches, and we can't figure out how much the ahi catch has declined. Our fish has consistent flavor, consistent price, and consistent availability to ensure that we can feed a demanding population within Hawaii not just the tourist sector, but local community alike.
One thing that ties the entire team together is passion for the ocean. And we wouldn't be doing what we do unless we could be sure that we're leaving the ocean in the same or even better a place than when we started. So environmental and social responsibility is at the core of our mission as a company. For us ensuring that we grow a fish from egg and get it harvested, processed, and shipped to our customer in a way that meets our level of expectation for food safety and for quality is critical. We don't want to be shipping fish that doesn't meet our standard off of this island. And so for us, being vertically integrated, ensuring that we have control from beginning to end of process is really important to making the best company possible.
NELHA has been amazing at not just identifying who those potential partners are, but bringing them here and having them work with us and making room for them. And that is going to help Blue Ocean Mariculture grow over time because we have a partner that is just as invested in our future as we are theirs. We can share ideas, we can grow the aquaculture sector. There's nowhere like NELHA in the world and coming from 38 years in the seafood industry there's nowhere that I wanted to be more than here at NELHA.
Visual Chronicles: Explore the Journey
Dive into our curated gallery to glimpse key moments from our success stories. Click any image to enjoy a detailed lightbox display, bringing each narrative to life.
