Big fish harvest anticipated in Marshall Islands

The first major harvest of fish grown in large lagoon cages on the north shore of Majuro’s lagoon is anticipated later this month.

Rongelap Mayor James Matayoshi said this week that the first harvest is just a few weeks away. The fish farming work is being run by the Atoll Technologies of the Marshall Islands or ATMI, a local company in partnership with off-shore investors that was developed by the Rongelap Atoll Local Government with the aim of developing fish farming export ventures on remote atolls around this western Pacific nation.

“I hope over the next three to five years, we will mature as a big company for export markets,” he said. “The market is there in the United States and Asia.”

Matayoshi said ATMI has established a hatchery and nursery as well as a feed mill to generate food necessary for feeding the tens of thousands of fish growing in the cages anchored in protected lagoon waters.

The fish growing began as a pilot project in 2012 looking to take advantage of demand in the Hawaii market for Pacific Threadfin, which is known in Hawaii as “Moi.”

The pilot project showed significantly higher growth rates than fish farms growing the same fish in Hawaii, leading to increased investor interest and expansion of the fish operation to its current level, which is on the cusp of a commercial level.

“We’re looking for capital to beef up the scale of the hatchery and the feed operations,” he said.

Currently, the business venture employs around 20 workers. But Matayoshi is optimistic this number will increase as the business expands operations.

ATMI recently received a US$1.7 million grant from the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Pacific American Climate Fund for a three-year term to develop fish farming to a commercial scale.