Monthly Archives: October 2012

Hunter Bishop of the Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports on a new tenant setting up shop at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii (NELHA). Shrimp Improvement Systems (SIS), a Florida-based shrimp farm, is expanding its operations and relocating its headquarters to NELHA, which is located in Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii. SIS “will keep its existing production facilities and an office in the Florida Keys,” but will primarily be focused on “improve[ing] production” in Hawaii due to the island’s “closer proximity to its largest markets,” namely Asia.  Hawaii also has an ideal climate and temperature range for breeding shrimp and NELHA is known for its impeccable sanitation conditions—two factors that SIS President Joe Tabrah believes will be “offsets” to higher costs related to energy and shipping. According to Tabrah, SIS will invest “$8 million in new facilities at NELHA.” SIS is set to acquire 10.5 acres of the Hawaii Ocean Science and Technology Park for operations. The project should be completed “by the end of 2013” and will create about 20 new jobs.   Read more here!… More:

A recent report published in ScienceDaily discusses the relationship between amount of zooxanthellae in coral and their susceptibility to bleaching. The report headed by Ross Cunning of the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science reveals that, contrary to popular belief, “corals with more algae bleached more severely than those with fewer algae.” Scientist used to think that corals with more zooxanthellae had “’more symbionts to lose,’” but Cunning and his team found the exact opposite to be true. Photo courtesy of sciencedaily.com Though scientists are still puzzled by the revelation, Andrew Baker, an associate professor at UM and co-author of the study, offers an explanation for the oddity saying, “Corals regulate their symbionts to match the environment in which they are found, and this study shows there is a real cost to having too many.” This study helps scientist to understand the effects of climate change on reefs, particularly those that are subject to greater temperature variations and pollution that can cause abnormal development of symbionts in coral.  Read more here!… More:

Sometime in the past year, a super secret meeting spawned a new business on Long Island in New York.   Someone was probably drinking Kraken rum when they posited the idea of ReefGen, a new farming organization focused on unusual and unique species.  Justin Credable and Laura Birenbaum are known throughout the industry for many achievements, but putting their collective minds to a new farming operation is probably their most exciting venture.  Justin, known for being the world’s biggest and most successful goniapora farmer (he even has his own Goni specific food from TLF), had been testing out some very new methods for coral fragging and growth optimization.  We don’t… More: