Israeli Prof. Yonathan Zohar has spent a lifetime
researching fish production and has a solution
that might stop the world's dramatic decline in
fisheries. Hip green environmentalists and
sushi lovers will like it too.
Zohar has created fish farms for the urban
environment. His special self-contained fish
pools can be built close to fresh food markets,
in city warehouses and even in your condominium.
It is clear that the consumption of seafood and
fish is on the rise, because of the great health
benefits... but now we are over-harvesting,
warns Zohar, director of the Center of Marine
Biotechnology at the University of Maryland. We
need to change that practice and become more
efficient in a way that is compatible to the
earth.
Zohar, who was born in Jerusalem and is a
graduate of Hebrew University, thinks his
solution is ideal. In the basement of the center
in Baltimore, he has built a series of high-tech
fish pools. They are filled with freshwater from
the tap, and have been adjusted with salts and
buffers to mimic the marine environment.
Using advanced concepts of microbiology, Zohar
has entrained special microbes to live in
symbiosis with the fish in order to digest their
waste. Aerated by plastic plugs that house the
microbes, the fish pools are bio-secure and
contaminant free, according to Zohar.
In addition, part of the solid waste that is
created by uneaten food or microbial byproducts
is converted into methane and used as biofuel,
says Zohar. This is significant. Zohar was one of
the original team to develop the technology of
fish farming in floating cages at sea in Israel.
These cages have become deeply controversial
because the waste created by the farmed fish
pollutes the surrounding seawater. In addition,
the waters where the fish are raised are often
heavily polluted with heavy metals such as
mercury, leading to problems such as the recent
toxic sushi scare in the US.
I am trying to develop the next generation
technology, to address cages and nets in light of
environmental concerns, he says. It is clear we
are over-harvesting the ocean and running out of
fish. We've focused on an alternative land-based
method that can be used in the urban environment.
The urban fish pools, each about the size of a
children's pool with higher walls and a roof, can
be put into operation anywhere Zohar stresses.
They can be placed in the mid-West or in Las
Vegas, he says.
These urban fish pools certainly address the
problem of declining fish populations. According
to the Food and Agricultural Organization, about
75 percent of the world's commercially fished
species are either depleted, overfished or fully
fished. If current trends continue, the fisheries
will collapse by 2050.
The pools can also address another environmental
issue - our carbon footprint - how far food needs
to travel before it arrives at the dinner table.
Eating locally grown food is becoming not only
fashionable in the United States; some people
consider it to be more important than eating
organic.
Zohar is now looking for an investor to build a
pilot plant. But the idea is not a dream - a
prototype, replete with living fish, now resides
in Baltimore. There, he is growing Mediterranean
gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata), also known as
dorade royale, or aurata.
And the taste? Our fish were tested by local
seafood restaurants and were highly praised for
their taste, texture and freshness," says Zohar.
We are currently shifting our focus to additional
high value marine fish, to include the European
seabass (bronzini) and cobia.