Behind the Headlines . . .

We don't want to close the curtain on 2000 without taking a moment to thank you for all your cooperation during the year. Fish Farming News is committed to reporting the business news of the industry, a job that would be impossible without your willingness to open your doors for a site visit, give us a tip on a breaking story, take the time for our phone calls, and keep us in your advertising budgets. We appreciate your support.

The year ahead has a ready list of challenges. A few that come to mind include coping with fish prices that can drop lower than production costs, moving MUMs legislation through Congress, keeping our fingers crossed for progress by a few significant new aquaculture operations, and you can add a few of your own.

As much as any other, though, the issue certain to occupy front and center space in 2001 is the environment and how it is impacted by aquaculture operations. There is a worry here. Despite the industry use of environmentally sustainable farming techniques, we have already seen examples of how misconceptions and often-repeated falsehoods can negatively impact the marketplace and the regulatory process.

We all need to play a role in helping to educate the public about the ways the industry practices environmental responsibility and stewardship. And we need to be prepared to back up our words with concrete evidence.

Talking about the environment is the perfect opening to Clear Springs Foods Inc., a vertically integrated trout operation in Buhl, ID.

Clear Springs is an ideal example to share with the public. By its actions, the company has shown its commitment to the environment. An active participant in working out the standards in the Idaho aquaculture industry's stringent National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit, Clear Springs continues to work to reduce the levels of phosphorus in its feed. Careful waste management is essential to the resource-based company. Being proactive with the concern for water quality both the spring water coming into the facility and the Snake River is a directive that starts at its highest leadership levels.

To know more, read Stephen Rappaport's site visit to Clear Springs, starting on page 29.

But Clear Springs isn't the only environmentally aware story from Idaho in this issue. Gary Fornshell, the extension aquaculture educator for the University of Idaho, has written a Feeds and Nutrition column on the evolution of nutrient-dense feeds for the trout industry, page 30.

In his From the Field column on page 39, Bob Robinson has turned the spotlight on Hagerman Fish Culture Experiment Station Director Dr. Ron Hardy, a renowned fish nutritionist and outspoken voice for the industry.

Globalization is the buzzword of an emerging economic order that makes the world seem smaller every day. In the salmon farming industry, "consolidation" is the buzzword in a world shrinking faster than a cheap shirt in a hot dryer.

Shortly before Christmas, the Norwegian salmon farming giant Fjord Seafood ASA announced that it would merge with ContiSea LLC, owner of Atlantic Salmon of Maine, the largest producer of Atlantic salmon in the United States.

ContiSea's operations will be merged into Fjord. ContiSea's shareholders, primarily ContiGroup Companies Inc. and Seaboard Corporation, will wind up owning 18% or the stock of the merged company, a stake worth an estimated $61.9 million.

It might seem an odd time to be buying a Maine salmon farmer, even one that produces 14 million pounds of salmon a year and has the capacity to double that amount. Just a few weeks before the merger was announced, the federal government listed Maine's wild Atlantic salmon population as an endangered species. Maine's salmon farmers said that the listing means that they, and the state's $66 million salmon farming industry, are the endangered species.

Though the state and a coalition of impacted industries have sued to have the listing set aside, the chances of success are slim.

So what was Fjord, already one of the world's largest producers and suppliers of salmon and salmon products, buying? Access to the US market.

Last fall, Fjord acquired two huge Chilean aquaculture companies and a European seafood company. In 2001, its total salmon production, including the fish grown in Maine, will be nearly 200 million pounds. That volume has to go somewhere and Fjord believes that much of it can be sold in the rapidly expanding US market, where consumers are expected to purchase about 23% of the world market's total salmon consumption.

In merging with ContiSea, Fjord acquires much more than just salmon production capacity. It gets a state-of- the-art processing facility with capacity to process fish imported from Chile.

Even more significantly, it gets immediate access to ContiSea's customer base more than 1,000 active buyers of its fresh, "Majestic" brand whole Atlantic salmon and salmon fillets and its Ducktrap River Fish Farm premium smoked seafood products.

Fjord also gains immediate access for its Chilean salmon products to ContiSea's sophisticated national sales and distribution system that incorporates a force of experienced regional sales reps situated in major US markets. That alone may be worth $61.9 million.

Happy New Year from all the crew at Fish Farming News. If you are fortunate enough to be taking in any of the conferences and trade shows as the new season rolls along, stop by the FFN booth to say hello. /ffn/

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