Training Fishermen to Become Fish Farmers

14 September 2011

This is the VOA Special English Education Report.

There are schools of fish, and there are schools for fishermen. The Cod Academy is a year-long program in Maine, one of the New England states in the American Northeast.

The academy is new. The idea is to train current or former ocean-going fishermen to become fish farmers.

Sebastian Belle is director of the Maine Aquaculture Association. That group launched the Cod Academy with the University of Maine and other partners. Mr. Belle says the academy teaches all about managing a floating farm.

SEBASTIAN BELLE: “One of the things we've been teaching the students is how to feed the fish and not overfeed the fish. So you want to give them enough feed, and not waste any feed and make it as efficient as possible."

Farm manager Clayton Coffin of Great Bay Aquaculture is helping retrain commercial fishermen to become fish farmers.

The students practice at eight fish pens about a kilometer and a half from shore. These circular pens are fifty meters wide and covered with netting to keep out seabirds. Each one holds as many as fifty thousand cod. A partner in the academy, Great Bay Aquaculture of New Hampshire, operates this fish farm.

Most of the cod will become someone's meal somewhere in the world.

Bill Thompson is fifty-nine years old. He served in the Navy and worked as a commercial fisherman. He says the Cod Academy made him a believer in fish farming.