Funding was made available and I began to assemble the team that I felt would give us the best chance of proving the commercial viability of the system I had conceived of and developed in Ocean Springs from 1998-2002.
2006 and 2007 were hugely successful years. We built a series of prototype designs from raceways to individual ponds each incarnation being more productive then the previous.
(We grew thousands of pounds of very tasty jumbo shrimp).
We achieved each of our stated objectives and finally underwent an audit of our performance results that concluded with the project receiving a certificate from a major accounting firm that attested to the fact, "we had proven and indeed surpassed, every performance claim and objective".
The partnership had always agreed once economic viability was assured we would use the prototype in South Africa as an R&D and training facility and we would immediately build full scale production facilities in sites that favored our system both environmentally (warmer) and corporately.
To this day, I cannot really explain what went wrong. Suddenly, the South African interests who had admittedly funded the bulk of the effort, wanted to build the full production farm in South Africa.
That was just unacceptable to me and my team. South Africa while a lovely country in many respects, is in too extreme of a latitude to be environmentally acceptable, has serious infrastructure limitations, not the least of which is a failing and inadequate electrical grid, and is rife with corruption and social discord.
The core team that was absolutely essential to the future immediate success of any roll out of the production facility was American and starting with myself none of us were willing to live in South Africa to build a facility that we know would not be successful.
The partnership interests with the financial power decided that 1) they could run the operation successfully without my leadership and without my core management team, 2) that the South Africa government would provide them the electricity and approvals to proceed and that 3) they could overcome the infrastructure limitations.
Without going into every boring detail, despite making every effort to appeal to the better instincts of the partners, the partnership began to erode.
Clearly, over time my position in the disagreements have proven prophetic.
In December 2009 almost 24 months after they seized control of the project the Southern Africa press reported the closing of the project (despite its huge success in growing large shrimp) due to the company's inability to secure adequate electrical supply guarantees, and other permitting issues from the government.
Sometime during the process as the acrimony intensified, one of the players in the drama contacted the South African press and my entire history with the HSUS became front page news in South Africa. I had of course disclosed my history with HSUS prior to entering into any partnership discussions.
Again, I was accused, convicted and condemned by the press for events that had transpired more then a decade earlier and as usual this next retelling of my past proved even more inaccurate and vitriolic then in the original version.
I am convinced that hubris and greed were the motivators that saw this wonderful success story fall into acrimony and disarray.
I came back to the states in late 2008 licking my wounds and began to try and see where I would go from here. I had achieved an enormous victory and now possessed the expertise and the practical capability to build an aquaculture system that could prosper in the 21st century.
That said, I was tired, disheartened and becoming very tired of having the HSUS controversy being used to impugn my honesty and my character. I was also determined to never again be held hostage by a business partner. I had a lot of thinking to do. I had no intention of not proceeding with the aquaculture system. The questions were how and where and with whom?
An aerial view of the prototype recirculating aquaculture system my team and I developed in South Africa. This was the next evolution of my work in Ocean Springs, Mississippi completed in 2002.
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