CCAR, Acadia Harvest Featured on WABI

WABI (Channel 5) reported on Acadia Harvest Inc., a startup business housed at the University of Maine’s Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research (CCAR) in Franklin. The business grows black sea bass and California yellowtail using sustainable land-based aquaculture production. “There are a lot of things here that we do better than what they get in the wild,” said Kevin Neves, product and operations manager at Acadia Harvest. “For example, the fish here never get hungry. They’re always being fed. That’s something a fish in the wild doesn’t get, so fish here grow faster than they would in the wild.” Currently the company is working with a batch of 5,000 fish — the next batch will be double, according to the report. Ed Robinson, chairman and CEO of Acadia Harvest, said he eventually would like to be able to support as many as 200 thousand fish per year, or about 1 million pounds. “I think the story of a local Maine-grown fish is also attractive to people, and we’d like to bring investment and jobs back into Maine and help build a serious business,” he said.