WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:01.429 --> 00:00:07.109 Demand for seafood is increasing around the world, and the United States is no exception. 00:00:07.109 --> 00:00:10.769 Providing enough fish for a growing 00:00:10.769 --> 00:00:14.500 seafood demand requires a little innovation. 00:00:19.380 --> 00:00:27.140 Here at True North Aquaculture, indoor water tanks are where it all begins. 00:00:29.400 --> 00:00:30.920 A fish like this can hold 00:00:31.220 --> 00:00:36.720 up to five thousand eggs. Oh ya look at the size of those eggs, oh ya. Good eggs. 00:00:36.720 --> 00:00:40.320 To make sure that juvenile salmon thrive, the water in 00:00:40.380 --> 00:00:44.780 the tanks is carefully monitored, to try to mimic the rivers the fish would 00:00:44.789 --> 00:00:48.870 normally hatch in. If we don't have clean water, we can't grow our product. Our 00:00:48.870 --> 00:00:53.219 salmon require the cleanest waters that are available. So if we're monitoring 00:00:53.219 --> 00:00:58.170 dissolved oxygens, temperatures, PH we very strictly monitor how much feed goes 00:00:58.170 --> 00:01:02.370 into each tank. As the little fish grow into larger fish, they're moved to 00:01:02.370 --> 00:01:06.930 different tanks to give fish more room to swim and grow. 00:01:06.930 --> 00:01:11.740 And eventually just like wild salmon they're ready to go to the ocean. 00:01:14.600 --> 00:01:22.200 There are almost 700,000 fish in these floating pens. Healthy, happy fish! 00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:27.120 The netting, like a fence on a traditional farm, keeps the fish in and predators 00:01:27.120 --> 00:01:29.080 like this seal out. 00:01:30.480 --> 00:01:36.149 To be sustainable, fish farmers need to deal with the food going in and waste 00:01:36.149 --> 00:01:42.270 coming out. One way is to improve the feed. The feed we use has come a long 00:01:42.270 --> 00:01:46.220 way in 20 years or so. It used to be primarily made out of wild fish. 00:01:48.280 --> 00:01:52.520 Today we're using only 15 to 20 percent fish in our pellets, so we're much more 00:01:52.520 --> 00:01:54.780 sustainable today than we were 20 years ago. 00:01:56.380 --> 00:01:57.780 Along with more sustainable 00:01:57.980 --> 00:02:02.600 ingredients, fish farmers are also improving the way they feed the salmon 00:02:02.610 --> 00:02:08.220 with the use of underwater cameras. I'm watching them right there and once they start 00:02:08.220 --> 00:02:13.140 seeing that drops of feed reached their level I'll adjust the camera and 00:02:13.140 --> 00:02:17.880 take it down. These monitor when salmon are full and prevent buildup of uneaten 00:02:17.880 --> 00:02:20.120 feed below the net pens. 00:02:21.460 --> 00:02:25.840 To take care of fish waste, True North relies on nature. 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:32.910 Many parts of Maine have dramatically large and strong tides and those tides 00:02:32.910 --> 00:02:39.150 work to disperse waste. This waste is mixed with other micronutrients and 00:02:39.150 --> 00:02:43.940 safely absorbed into the food chain, just like the wastes of wild fish. 00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:51.140 Down East Maine is a great place to have salmon aquaculture, it's a lot of flushing 00:02:51.150 --> 00:02:54.150 action and it's good for the fish to them you know it creates a lot of oxygen 00:02:54.150 --> 00:02:58.680 for the fish to keep them healthy so it's a perfect place to go for salmon. My 00:02:58.680 --> 00:03:02.590 father managed a herring plant and I work I worked with 00:03:02.590 --> 00:03:07.840 him and when that folded up and you know the wild fishery was done in Maine and so 00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:12.550 aquaculture was a natural thing for me to jump to. By growing our seafood 00:03:12.550 --> 00:03:15.670 locally, these ocean farmers are using the 00:03:15.670 --> 00:03:19.780 experience they have from commercial fishing, to produce a sustainable source 00:03:19.780 --> 00:03:24.820 of healthy protein, while also creating work that is meaningful, and even fun. 00:03:24.820 --> 00:03:29.320 People that work here wanna work because you know it's a good-paying job and you're 00:03:29.320 --> 00:03:32.500 doing what you love to do you're working on the water running boats running 00:03:32.500 --> 00:03:36.550 equipment like this you know it takes a boat operator, it takes someone that's 00:03:36.550 --> 00:03:40.810 got skills with a computer. And it helps the coastal communities you know this 00:03:40.810 --> 00:03:45.400 would be a very depressed area without the aquaculture industry. Using traditional 00:03:45.400 --> 00:03:51.920 knowledge, data, and new technology, keeping fish on the menu is possible.