Back in 2016, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration finalized a long-in-the-works plan to manage the construction of aquaculture facilities in areas of the Gulf of Mexico controlled by the federal government. But there was a problem. The regulatory hurdles were so complex that no company wanted to apply for the permits needed to build a fish farmâuntil Ocean Era came along.
The company, which is based in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, has already developed two aquaculture projects in federal waters, raising kampachi, a fin fish known around the Gulf as almaco jack. In 2017, the company became the first entity to try to build an aquaculture operation in the Gulf when it announced plans for Velella Epsilon, a kampachi fish pen to be built about 40 miles west of Sarasota.