AHI Awarded $657,000 to Develop Land-Based Aquafarm
The National Science Foundation awarded $657,000 to Acadia Harvest Inc. (AHI), which is working to achieve a commercial-scale, land-based, indoor Maine seafood farm with low to zero waste. AHI, which formed in 2011, has conducted collaborative research at the University of Maine Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research (CCAR) in Franklin, to advance the technology of recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) used to raise fish, including California yellowtail and black sea bass. The grant will enable AHI to increase the scale of its research project and to add new species for studies in an integrated saltwater system. The goal, says AHI officials, is to deliver fresh seafood from Maine to people throughout the U.S., perhaps by 2017–2018.