February 17, 2026 — Half a mile off the Big Island in Hawaii, where the currents run swift and the depths reach 200 feet, Blue Ocean Mariculture raises kanpachi (Seriola rivoliana), a native Hawaiian yellowtail, in what is the United States’ sole open-ocean, commercial finfish farm.
Small in comparison to coastal Norwegian salmon farms, with annual combined exports of 1.2 million tons, Blue Ocean Mariculture produces about 1,100 tons of fish annually in net pens submerged 30 to 130 feet under water. Roughly half the fish is sold to distributors and stores in Hawaii, while the rest goes to markets on the U.S. mainland, according to Taylor Korte, vice president of marine operations at Blue Ocean Mariculture.
The company’s conservation efforts have earned it Seafood Watch’s rank of yellow, or a good alternative to endangered species like bluefin tuna, but not quite as stellar as a green ranking for sustainably harvested seafood, like farmed mussels or Arctic char. Blue Ocean kanpachi, a rich, mild-flavored, versatile fish, is on the menu in restaurants across the country, from Mama’s Fish House in Maui to Sugarfish in New York and California, where it’s served raw as sashimi or ceviche—or baked, grilled, or steamed.
Although it is close to shore, Blue Ocean Mariculture is considered an environmental and economic model for very deep open-water aquaculture. And now, it has become the poster child for the Marine Aquaculture Research for America (MARA) Act.
The bill was introduced last fall to develop aquaculture of all types (finfish, seaweed and shellfish) in federal waters, defined as 3 to 200 nautical miles offshore. The bill has strong bipartisan support and could advance in the Senate as early as March, Maddie Voorhees, U.S. aquaculture campaign director for the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), told Civil Eats.
The MARA Act is the latest bill to reflect a decades-long drive, largely by industry groups such as the Stronger America Through Seafood Coalition, to advance U.S. aquaculture in the open ocean. Coalition members include big feed businesses like Cargill and JBS; food service giant Sysco; and U.S. aquaculture companies such as Taylor Shellfish and Ocean Era.
MARA Act champions say the law is needed to cut red tape and reduce U.S. reliance on imported seafood. Opponents of industrial fish farming fiercely push back on the proposal and say there are better ways to boost consumption of domestic seafood.