Recalling an Earlier Fish Farming Venture

Reading the wonderful article on Andy Russell and Eric Pedersen’s successful fish farming activity prompted me to put my oar in as a not-quite-as-successful Princeton pioneer fish farmer.

In 1969 and ’70 I was involved with a South Florida company, Oceanography Mariculture. Our objective was to raise and commercially market pompano, a delicious “plate size” fish. This involved spawning Pompano in a controlled environment and maintaining them in recirculating sea water.

The heavy lifting was done by a superb marine biologist, Dr. Martin Moe, who successfully accomplished the spawning goal. I was involved in investor relations and had a nice spiel that emphasized “food to flesh” ratio and the high demand for pompano.

Unfortunately we were not able to overcome the challenge of maintaining a stable saltwater environment for our baby fish and the venture faded away in the early ’70s.

Ahead of my time I may have been, but that makes me even more respectful of Andy and Eric’s accomplishments.