BILL THOMPSON: “Even if the wild stocks came back to their fullest capacity, they still wouldn't be able to feed the world. So I think this is the way of the future. And it's feasible for a family to run a business.”
He and his son were among the first four students who graduated in August. Bill junior is thirty-nine and has been a working fisherman for most of his life. He dives for urchins and traps lobster. But he has a wife and four children to support.
BILL THOMPSON JUNIOR: “Well, I've seen a depletion of the source of everything I've been harvesting over the years. I look into the future, I can't see my kids set up in what I'm doing right now as far as, you know, lobstering, urchining. I don't want to see them, you know, get a source that's depleting every year.”
Like any business, fish farming has financial risks. Program director Sebastian Belle says students have to develop a marketing and business plan before they can graduate. Graduates can receive financial assistance from the Maine Aquaculture Association to start their own cod farm. But they will be expected to raise about half the money toward any project.
Mr. Belle says the Cod Academy is based on programs to retrain displaced herring and tuna fishermen in Norway and Japan. These government-sponsored programs started more than thirty years ago.
SEBASTIAN BELLE: “It's never been done before in America and we're trying to see if it's a model that has some potential. “
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2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25