Differentiators
Among the other companies in the
current marine aquaculture marketplace, the names that come to mind
for most hobbyists are ORA (Oceans,
Reefs and Aquariums), C-Quest, Segrest Farms, Proaquatix, and A&M
Aquatics.
ORA is clearly the leader, with
about 50,000 square feet of marine
ornamental hatchery space located
at Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Campus in Ft. Pierce, as
well as another acre in the Marshall
Islands, where they carry out mariculture activities.
While there are many important
differentiators between ORA and Sustainable Aquatics, perhaps the most
important concerns each company’s
stated endgame. “Aquacultured marine life is the only alternative to
wild-caught fish and invertebrates
for aquariums,” says Dustin Dorton,
ORA’s president and CEO. ORA’s
long-term goal is to provide a full range of aquacultured
fishes and corals to the trade, making the 100% aquacultured reef tank the norm in the hobby.
“I don’t believe that the 100% aquacultured aquari-
um should be the ultimate goal,” says Matthew Carberry.
“Not if it means relying only on tank-bred specimens.”
Matthew tells me he thinks the marine aquarium hobby
will always rely on the ocean to supply the marine aquar-
ium trade. “We’ll rely on the ocean out of necessity,” he
explains, “because [some fishes] can’t be bred in captiv-
ity, but also out of convenience.”
Matthew points out that many species are cheaper
and easier to catch sustainably than to breed. “Almost
certainly there will be additional restrictions on the wild
harvest of marine life for the trade, so sustainable har-
vesting practices and aquaculture will be increasingly
important.”
Wild-bred, tank-raised Yellow tangs, Zebrasoma flavescens.
the use of conventional glass tanks for growing them out is a
strategy to acclimate them to aquarium conditions.
sUstainaBLe isLanDs
sustainable aquatics
The Sustainable Islands division is yet another differentiator. While Sustainable Aquatics deals primarily in captive-bred fishes, its Sustainable Islands division, which
is housed in a separate and completely isolated facility
on the SA campus, has for the past year been delighting
many marine aquarium hobbyists with tank-raised fishes
like Blue Hippo Tangs, Seagrass Filefish, various angels,
and Clown Triggerfish.
While touring Sustainable Islands, I ask Matthew
about how long most of these fishes reside in-house.
“That’s a difficult one since it is so varied,” Matthew
explains. “Some fish, like damsels and some gobies, for
instance, are able to grow to a large saleable size in four
to six weeks, while there are other fish that we have kept
and grown for a year before selling them.” He points to
larger Clown Triggerfish, some angels, butterflies, and
tangs as requiring more time in grow-out. For critics of
tank-raised fishes, the time kept in-house is critical, for
it could be argued that there is a fine line between a fish
that is “acclimated” and one that is “tank-raised.”
In the Sustainable Aquatics lexicon, a fish must re-
main in-house for a minimum of one month before it
gets the tank-raised Sustainable Islands label. “While
four to six weeks is our minimum to call at least some
species TR and allow for all of the benefits of SI fish,”
says Matthew, “three to four months is closer to the av-
erage stay and healthy growing time for many species, if
they are brought in at our preferred size.”
PreferreD size for Post-LarvaL anD
JUveniLe fishes
“Preferred size” is another area of contention for critics
of companies dealing in tank-raised fishes. How small
does a fish need to be if it will eventually be marketed as
a tank-raised animal? In general, Sustainable Aquatics
and others involved in selling tank-raised fishes on the
up-and-up refer to their preferred target size for collection as “post-larval” or “juvenile” fishes that have only
“recently settled back onto the reef.” Settlement is the
