Aquaculture Links

Consumption of Tilapia in the U.S. is now over 100 million pounds. Tilapia consumption is now larger than that of trout, and exceeds all salmon imports to the U.S. Tilapia consumption is expected to explode to over 400 million pounds per year by the year 2005, according to the Bureau of Fisheries. It is expected to be the aquaculture industry's white fish of choice to fill the growing supply gap due to overfishing because of its similarity to popular ocean-caught white fish, and the extremely hardy growing characteristics necessary for a successful product.

Our fish begin their journey through our system as fry in the hatchery. When they reach 1 gram they are moved into our nursery where they live until they reach 55 grams or fingerling size. At this point they move into the main tanks until they reach market size of 1.5 lbs. This process takes about nine months. At market size they are harvested and delivered in our onboard tanks fresh and live to Chinatown in Boston.

Besides using hydroponically grown crops to clean and help recycle otherwise environmentally problematic fish waste, Bioshelters also integrates specially engineered marshes into its system, which makes for exceptionally clean discharges, and eliminates the common aquaculture practice of using rivers or other bodies of water to dilute pollutive fish wastes. Our grain fed fish are grown in fresh not salt water. Which allows us to create a safe fertilizer used by farmers on conventional field crops. Since BSI's system reuses 99.7% of its water, only 0.3% has to be treated with marshes, resulting in compact and cost effective constructed wetlands safe for the environment.