Are You an Ocean-Friendly Entrepreneur?

If so, the Sea E O would like to connect with you and help you tell your story in The Sea Suite. Drop me a note telling me about yourself and your business and let's start a conversation.

And, while we're at it, please let us know what you think of The Sea Suite so far by responding to the little poll thingy on the right-hand side. Only a few days left....

Thanks!

Jeff Dunsavage
The Sea E O

Is Now the Time to Go Long Soybeans?

Aquaculture is no panacea for our race's ocean-killing fishing practices. In fact, it can be a major contributor to the problem when you look at the amount of fishmeal required to generate one pound of farm-raised salmon (oh, how I miss salmon....)

As a rule of thumb, I avoid any of the large, carniverous pelagic species: if they're wild, they are already woefully overfished or on the verge; if they're farmed, they require an unconscionable amount of fishmeal to bring them to my plate. Farmed herbivores and omnivores (say, catfish or tilapia - ahhh.....tilapia.....) are another story.

So, what does this have to do with the price of soybeans? Plenty, it turns out.

According to this article in the Brownfield Ag News (I don't make these things up, really!), Americans are increasing their tilapia consumption by approximately 15% a year. Can you say "business opportunity"? Well, the Mexican government can (although I guess they'd say it in Spanish, right?) and is encouraging a boost in fish farming to meet this growing demand.

And what do you think the heavily subsidized Mexican fish farmers feed their tilapia? You've got it!

Francisco de la Torre, who coordinates aquaculture projects in the Caribbean and Latin America for the U.S. soybean industry, says he expects aquaculture in the region to consume about 200,000 tons of soymeal by the end of this year and for that amount to rise by 100,000 tons within the next three to five years.

That's a lot of soybeans.

The potential business opportunities in this story? Let's see: I'll be looking at soybean futures, shipping and refrigeration (I know, carbon footprint! but that's a topic for another post), soybean substitutes for when soybean prices go through the roof, aquaculture facility components...I'm sure you can think of a few yourself. C'mon, share!

Help Us Improve (or Wake Up & Smell the Fail)

We live and, hopefully, learn. If you've been reading my posts, I'm eager to hear what you think, so please take a moment to answer my unscientific little poll to the right. If you're new to The Sea Suite, please take a few minutes to graze first. They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression, but nothing says we can't try.

Ocean Friendly = Investment, not Sacrifice

One of the most important messages I took away from the book and film, The End of the Line is that saving the oceans (and, by definition, the planet) is not rocket science. At the most simplistic level, it is about what we put into the oceans and what we take out of it.

Overfishing depletes a finite resource (easy enough to understand when we talk about fossil fuels - why not when we talk about fish stocks?) and disrupts the ecological balance by removing the predators that keep populations in check at all levels. By depleting fish stocks, we also eliminate the fish waste that is essential to the ocean's ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. In other words, there is a direct connection between overfishing and the threat of global warming. If you care about climate change, you have to care about the health of our oceans.

On the inputs side: You don't need to visualize large-diameter pipes pouring sewage into the oceans. Think chemical fertilizer and livestock waste from factory farms running off into the streams and rivers and ultimately into the oceans. Think plastics, endlessly swirling in the North Pacific Garbage Patch, breaking down to plankton-size tidbits and becoming a permanent feature of the food chain. Think of all those Styrofoam peanuts that are such a pain in the ass to get off your living room carpet and multiply them a trillion-fold. Think of ghost nets clinging to rocks and reefs on the bottom of the sea, pointlessly and indiscriminately strangling all kinds of marine animals.

Ocean-friendly business is not some nice-to-do, warm-and-fuzzy fish-hugging thing. It is responsible stewardship of our planet. Pursuing ocean-friendly business practices is not a sacrifice - it is an investment in a niche market that will become mainstream as the planet's people become better educated. Do you want to be a leader and establish a sustainable advantage, or are you going to wait around and play catch-up?