One Perspective !

I have been literally going full throttle for the past week plus.

I will try and do an update over this weekend on a lot of what is happening but for tonight I just wanted to share something with my readership from an aquaculture industry perspective.

I have written often about the technology we have developed and the capability our system has to produce copious amounts of marine protein in a sustainable, eco-friendly, highly efficient manner. 

About two weeks ago one of the key members of our financial team forwarded a link to me that directed me to an article written over a decade ago. 

I read (scanned quickly) the article in a superficial fashion when he first sent it to me. 

It's content really did not sink in to my consciousness at that time.

A few days ago while flying from DC to Dallas, Texas I had time and occasion to re-visit the article as well as the synopsis of the major points in the article as detailed by our financial team member. 

Published in The Atlantic Monthly in 1999 this article appeared in the same year I was doing the initial biological work on recirculating aquaculture systems for growing jumbo shrimp in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Reading the article on the plane now over 13 years later I was struck by the parallels of what the author was saying in the article and where my own thinking was at the time. 

The article even briefly mentions fish farming in its predictive speculation.

Hopefully you can clink on the link and go directly to the article if you are interested. I would suggest you read the article and then read the summation of the salient points made by the individual who forwarded the article to me.

I think the author was definitely "on to something" thirteen years ago. 

I also think our technology developed and proven over the past thirteen years is a strong and powerful example of exactly what the author was predicting. 

Click on link below or simply "cut and paste" in your browser window to read the article in its entirety. 

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1999/10/beyond-the-information-revolution/304658/

Synopsis of article's highlights :

1.       We will change from hunter and gatherers of the sea to “Marine Pastoralists”

2.       Like biotechnology and fish farming each will emerge from its own unique and unexpected technology

3.       Industrial revolution changed economics by creating the “entrepreneur”…. small brave and intrepid investors will be pioneers!

4.       In retrospect it is difficult to imagine why the invention of the railroad took so long (we believe they will be saying the same about our emerging aquaculture  technology).  

5.       The impact of the Information Revolution, like the Industrial Revolution, has been enormous.  Both have enhanced goods and services that were in existence all along.  (Our technology was developed from research and data in the public sector, it was literally "just out there for all to see")

6.       The railroad was the truly revolutionary element of the Industrial Revolution, (today maybe it will be an "Aquaculture Revolution" and perhaps our technology will be the 'new railroad"), for not did it only create a new economic dimension but also changed what one would call the Mental Geography.

7.       There is only one economy and one market, one consequence of this is that every business must become globally competitive

8.       Dynamics of technology shifted to totally new industries that emerged almost immediately after the railroad was invented, not one of which had anything to do with steam or steam engines

9.       The one thing (to say again) that is highly probable, if not nearly certain, is that the next twenty years will see the emergence of a number of new industries.  At the same time, it is nearly certain that few of them will come out of information technology, the computer, data processing, or the internet.  This is indicated by all historical precedents. But is true also of the new industries that are already rapidly emerging.  Biotechnology, as mentioned is already here.  So is Fish Farming.

10.   Twenty five years ago Salmon (Shrimp) was a delicacy… today it is a commodity…

11.   But probably a dozen or so technologies are at the stage where biotechnologies was twenty-five years ago and are ready to emerge.

12.   The true spirit of a real "venture capitalist", not a "vulture capitalist" has the means and mentality to finance the unexpected and unproved (our technology will be unexpected,  but not unproven!)

13.   The key to our future is not electronics; it is cognitive science.

14.   Industries that emerge from now on will likely be from years of hard work, of struggle, of disappointments and failures, of thrift.  It has taken us 12 plus years to bring our technology to its first commercial application).

The closing comments by our financial member were: 

"I hope you enjoy reading between the lines like I do and are as excited as I am about this project.  Thanks for being the pioneers in helping shape Aquaculture in the 21^st Century!!"

I could not say it better myself. That is why I am giving you his words verbatim here. 

NEW DIGS AT COPANO BAY

Big moment at site today.

The new modular office with includes our water quality and algae lab was delivered. 

Over the next few days it will be installed and the water and sceptic system put in and the electrical power  will be hooked up and we will have our professional headquarters, at least for the next few years, fully operational.                 

It is so much better when you have your offices under one roof where everyone congregates each day.

The synergy from having a team of bright and capable individuals interact on a daily basis in my past experience produces a superior work product that frankly, you just cannot achieve without that daily interaction.

Our management team is essential to seeing our production system reach the objectives and production performance parameters that will make this comapany so successful.

Having a comfortable working environment on site where each day the exchange of ideas and the aligned interests of the team can be allowed to flourish is one of several critical pathways to success.

After the past two years of working out of a rented container trailer in Port Isabel and the past 7 months of having half the team in Port Isabel and half up here, it is good to know that situation is about to be resolved. 

By this September everyone should be here on the Copano Bay site, at our new office pulling together to take this project to the next level.

There was also another very significant event at the site yesterday. 

As we were demolishing the old tin (and very rusted) shed on the site right behind were the office is being positioned, a nest of fledging barn owls were discovered. 

After some convincing and a little bit of gentle persuasion the three immature owls were captured and transported to the Texas State Aquarium where they will be held and fed and protected until they are ready to fly and hunt on their own at which time they will be released in an area near where we discovered them. 

(We made a generous donation and will continue to send future donations to the rehab center, they do great work there). 

I am now looking online into where I can order a few barn owl houses to put up on the 171 acres we have at Copano Bay for their future abodes. 

Failing that perhaps some other barn owls in the area may like a new home as well. 

I guess this week was about new "digs" for a couple of Copano Bay residents and workers. 

               Two of the young owls are pictured below.

  

Sunday''s Soapbox

The world is in dire need of protein and perhaps more in need of marine protein than any other.  

Just look at few of the facts: 

Seafood is humanity’s most important food source after cereals, accounting for 20% of consumed protein; yet it’s the primary source of protein (as much as 60%) in the world’s fastest growing regions (Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America).

Herbivorous fish convert feed into protein much more efficiently than cattle, pork or poultry (which already consume 40% of global grain production), seafood must supply an increasing share of global protein requirements. 

Global per capita consumption of seafood reached historic levels in 2012 (>17 kg), exceeding 160 million total tons. 

Experts predict 50% more is required  by 2020 to meet rising human demand. Yet wild harvests and traditional aquaculture cannot do it. Overfishing has depleted global stocks by nearly 90% since 1950, leading to rapid extinction of marine species. 

Total extinction of all fish stocks is predicted by 2048 based on current trend. 

For the first time in history, farm-raised seafood accounts for more than half the seafood consumed globally due to rapidly declining wild harvests; yet neither traditional aquaculture nor land-based animal agriculture (chicken, beef, lamb, pork) can meet rising human demand for protein, creating looming shortages.

In the USA alone we import 91% of our marine protein at a value in the billions of dollars and our average per capita consumption is increasing. 

That is just a sampling of the dire news. There is much, much, more and none of it is positive. 

In 2011, after 12 years and millions of dollars invested in creating, envisioning, designing, building, operating, and perfecting a system capable of sustainably producing enormous amounts of marine protein on 1/14 of the footprint farmed shrimp and fish require for the same production in the traditional open pond system we were ready to build our first production system here in the USA. 

The question was no longer "can we do it ?" (we have done it several times over each time to a better production and performance outcome) but where can get the funding to take the company to a profitable status.

The banks will not help you. You are a "start up", they say, "there is risk", and as they tell you ad nauseam, "they are risk adverse". Go figure. 

Or my favorite comment from the bankers, "Come back when you are showing positive cash flow and we can help" Why the hell would I come back and take out a loan with its over inflated interest (can you spell usury?) fees once I have positive cash flow?

The "vulture (excuse me, I mean venture) capitalists" after pouring up every orifice of your business decide "hey, these guys may really have something", " and they then realize this may be the real deal", can get you the money you need. 

Oh yeah, these guys are more than willing to give you the money you need to get your company to a positive cash flow position, provided you give them 80% of the returns and they get theirs ($$) back first, and they are on your board of directors, and they have operational veto power and " oh, by the way", now that you are very successful and the business is making real money, they force you to resign as they intend to "go public" and "you should be happy" after all, with your 2 % share (that was all of your company you still owned after ten years of hard work and innovation on what was largely your idea and vision), because you will get a good return on your 2 %, far more than when they helped you get started back when. 

So, how do you do it? How do you afford the expensive start up costs that come with building a new business? 

The answer for us was to look back before World War 2, or even just back to the 50"s and early 60" when America was still a manufacturing and production power and normal people, not the Wall Street and banking elite, supported innovation and emerging technologies through small investments.

You take a page from the past successes of business men and women who believed in capitalism and the power of individuals. 

You go to family and friends and to friends of friends and to acquaintances of friends and you show them in detail what you are trying to accomplish. 

I call it the "six degrees of separation" strategy. 

Through these contacts and acquaintances you find average, hard working, tax paying, bill paying people, who as Ben Franklin supposedly once said, " the merchants and the farmers who will be the back bone of this grand experiment we will call a nation". 

And you ask for their help and their trust. 

You offer a good return on their investment. 

You tell them to come down and take a look at what you are doing. 

And then they decide for themselves. 

As this project unfolds here in Texas the enormity of what we are doing can be a bit intimidating. 

Our first phase of production expansion which should be completed late in 2014 or early 2015 will make us one of, if not the largest producer of farmed shrimp in America. 

And we plan to grow aggressively to ten million pounds of annual production here on Copano Bay over the next five years.

We also know our technology can and will work for fin fish production as well.

Think of it, a system that has a chance of producing the copious amounts of seafood the world's population is demanding. 

As the construction phase is unfolding and the ordering of materials and equipment on an industrial scale are being sourced it is with great pride and a smile that I can say that of all of the funding to date for this operation in Texas, not one cent has come from a venture capital firm or a bank, or some egotistical billionaire. 

In fact, every dollar invested has come from your average "Joe's and Jane's" that in my mind, do indeed comprise the back bone of this country.

Individuals who have been and who are successful based on their own skills and motivation and their own sweat. 

Individuals who are willing to take chance on something new. 

Who unlike banks, are willing to take a reasonable risk to see something new succeed. 

To see something develop that is grown and produced here in America as well as abroad.

Individuals who want a fair return on their investment but that are not motivated by greed and gluttony. 

We will most certainly develop production capabilities overseas in the months and years ahead. The climates and the infrastructure and the work force in certain countries are ideal for our system. And the truth is many nations needs marine protein and job creation. 

But this time when we build overseas it will be with our flag ship operation solidly entrenched here in the USA.

We will be successful because a lot of what the financial types disdainfully call "small investors" made the choice to make the investment(s) necessary to make it happen.  

Hard working folks with a willingness to "take a risk".

That seems like a pretty unique and pretty important species these days. 

Two Disparate Events

I have a few thoughts I want to share on two disparate but significant events of the past few days.

Our excavating company brought a few pieces of equipment on site today at Copano Bay. (We already had a CAT D9T on site). 

This has been overshadowed by its 146,499 lb., big brother, the D10T, (pictured just below) which was delivered to site on Friday. 

They also today dropped off a 45,700 lb., CAT 815F Soil Compactor and a 5000 gallon CAT613C Water Tanker. 

The Soil Compactor is a tamping wheel type unit, where the multiple tips on each wheel push down into freshly spread loose earth to compress it down as the machine drives over the top.

Today we began stripping topsoil, knocking down the existing pond berms, and compacting the soil in the fill area. The site will never be the same again.

By the end of the week the excavators will have three more 361 Scrapers on site and can begin the mass earthworks.

This contract allowed for 90 days from start to finish. We are hopeful it will be done in 75 days or less. 

We should be finished installing all of the infrastructure for all four modules in phase 1 as well as have the first module up and being filled with water by and September.

Less than two years ago we broke ground on a scaled down production module in Port Isabel, Texas to build a structure that could prove we had the capability to take our technology and our system to commercial and industrial levels.

Today, two week before the two-year anniversary of that ground breaking we begin the massive earth moving work and take the first step toward building our first commercial facility.

Lot of folks worked hard to make this happen.

Kudos to all.

My cat Buster dies this past week. He was one of four cats we adopted about 15 years ago. He was a great guy.

If you read this blog regularly you know how much animals mean to me.

A lot of people claim to be either dog people or cat people. I love all dogs. They are amazing friends and companions.

That said, I love cats just as much. I admire their intelligence, their physicality, and their attitudes.

Mark Twain supposedly once said, “if you could cross cats with mankind, it would be a step forward for mankind, but two steps backwards for cats”. I couldn’t agree more.

Buster went very easy. (I always thank God for the fact that most of our animals go very easily).

The last day of Buster’s life a veterinarian friend came by on the possibility that we might want to consider euthanasia for Buster, if he was in too much pain.

Ironically after three previous days of being somewhat uncomfortable Buster was having a pretty good day. He was in his favorite bed upstairs looking at a squirrel on the window ledge probably contemplating if he could catch it or not.

Our veterinarian friend opined that perhaps since Buster was having a “good day” it might be best to put him to sleep, (a euphemism I have always despised).

I have heard many pet owners over the years make a similar statement. It always bothered me. I mean, think of the logic. “The end is near and he may suffer at the very end, but right now he is enjoying the last days, hours, minutes of this very precious gift we call life, so let’s deprive him of whatever time he has left, let’s play God, and end it now. It will be better this way”.

I always wonder whom it will be better for? Certainly it will not be better for the living, feeling, creature that for the moment, is relishing the simple beauty of living.

Buster died about 6 hours later that evening. He went to sleep and did not wake up, still in his favorite bed, surrounded by everything he loved, and with which he was familiar.

I think it was definitely better that way.

A Good Week

Sometimes you don’t need an amazing event or a huge accomplishment to have a good week. Sometimes simple progress and fun moments defines success.

Below is a weekly update from our construction manager:

Here is today's update on progress of the site works being undertaken on our site.

Following the arrival on Wednesday of a CAT 631G Scraper on site, we now also have a CAT D9T Dozer on site which arrived yesterday afternoon. 

The CAT 631G Scraper weighs in at around 100,000lb empty, and  will hold around 34yd3 of dirt in its scraper bowl, bringing its operating weight to a hefty 184,000lbs

The CAT D9T has an operating weight of around 110,447lb and will move around 17 to 21yd3 of dirt at a time with its 14 to 15ft wide blade.

Topographical surveying for Rangers setting out and operating purposes was carried out on Thursday in preparation for the earth moving to begin. Currently we have Daniel and his team on site installing the silt fencing around the site, and they hope to be completed by the end of tomorrow, depending on how their work goes on the more difficult access parts of the site.

The silt fencing work is being undertaken by BMP Specialist, based out of Austin, TX. and utilizes a  10,800lb CAT 299D Compact Track Loader with a chain trencher attachment fitted to make a shallow trench for the bottom of the silt fencing to sit into, which is then backfilled to seal the base of the silt fence into the ground.

Further updates will follow as we proceed with this exiting time in our project. 

Oh, by the way I saw Iron Man 3 this week. Loved it. Two plus hours of escapism.

Saw preview for new Thor movie. Can’t wait.

Finished a great book by Carl Hiassan, “Lucky You”. Too funny and too weird. Great tale.

Sometimes a good week comes from just a lot of small but very "good moments". 

Big Day At Copano Bay

We awarded the dirt contract to a major excavation company here in Texas last week. They have begun their mobilization phase. The first of their equipment arrived at the site this afternoon.

This is a very exciting time for all of us who have endured the 10 plus year roller coaster ride with this project.

Their contract calls for the dirt work for the entire site for phase 1 of our expansion to have finished everything on site no later than 90 days from today. I suspect given the size and sophistication of this excavation company they will be done sooner.

The first of the three rigid air structures that we ordered two weeks ago should be shipped to the site sometime between August 1 and August 15 and then installed and inflated over the next two weeks.

We have to have the foundation in place before then and are currently designing that as we speak. It is a serious piece of engineering as it is over 1,000 feet long and over 150 feet wide and serves as the key component that allows these structures to handle 120 miles an hour wind loads for the facility. 

So, long story short we are slightly ahead of schedule toward our goal of having the fist module up and filling with water by mid September. Manufacturing for the cover for module # 2 will commence on November 1st and is scheduled to be shipped for installation in early 2014.

We intend to be harvesting shrimp from two modules by June 2014.

We should be able to produce close to one million pounds of jumbo shrimp in 2014.

We had a few visitors here the past three days and during this time I realized something I had not recognized before. Even though I thought I had made the scale and scope of the commercial facility clear to everyone, it turns out I had not. No one had even an approximate conception of the scale of production we are creating or what it takes in materials and structures and water volume to grow shrimp at the industrial production levels we are targeting.

This became very apparent when in my truck I stopped, pointed to where the south corner where one single production module begins and then drove the 1,000 plus feet to where the building would end on the north corner. Every person which no exceptions, when I stopped remarked something along the lines of " Good Lord" or "Holy S---". 

Even the 2 1/2 million pound production footprint, (which is simply the first phase of the total construction piece we have in development for the full site), is enormous in scale.

In the USA when we finish the 4th module and start-harvesting shrimp from all four modules we will become the largest producer of farmed shrimp in the USA. 

In any event we are off to the races or as our farm manager has been calling it these past two years we are off to " the BIG SHOW ".

Attached is a picture of Mike Dickin, our new construction manager beside the first piece of equipment that just arrived today.

Pretty cool, right?

The Bourbon Blog !

I have been traveling and working very hard the past 4 weeks to get in an effort to keep everything in my world moving forward at the right time and in the right place. 

A lot of really positive things are starting to fall into place.

So, without trying too hard tonight I am just going to do a quick mind dump mainly so I can actually list for myself the number of really positive things that are happening right now. 

On the work front we awarded the dirt and earth moving contract last week and the excavation company is starting mobilization this week. In about 60 days the site at Copano Bay will be transformed. It was a 2.3 million USD contract but when completed the entire first phase of our production expansion will be finished and the first set of ponds and piping will be completed. We will post pictures of the progress. 

Very cool. 

We have ordered the first cover and that fabrication has started. We are on track for total installation by mid September and actually putting water in the first full commercial production module right after that.

Had several of our investors in this weekend. Great folks. Nothing in life is really more satisfying than taking on an effort like this and having people around you you actually like.

On of our investors who I had never met suggested I change the name of my blog to "The Bourbon Blog". I am seriously considering it for a multitude of reasons. 

I love meeting smart people. 

You have to read the following. I am just going to reprint the article below as I read it with one comment. Some where between 2014 and 2015 we could become one of the largest chitosan (chitin, which is a shrimp exoskeleton) suppliers in North America and we have not even figured any of that into our financial forecasts. 

Norway

Throw Away Your Tails, But Keep the Shells

A factory in Tromsø, Norway, produces chitosan, a product made from the shells of shrimp and other crustaceans, and sells it for $172 a kilo!

Consequently, scientists at Nofima, the Norwegian Institute of Food, Fishery and Aquaculture, which has around 410 employees and an annual budget of about $85 million, are participating in a major European Union-financed project to find uses for chitosan.  Because chitosan-based fibers are 100% biodegradable, the scientists hope to use them to replace the plastic in food packaging.  In addition, according to Morten Sivertsvik, director of research at Nofima’s Processing Technology Department in Stavanger, Norway, “Chitosan used as an integrated part of the packaging can have an antibacterial effect on the food products.”  Mavi, an Italian skin-care company, coordinates the two-year project that includes four EU companies and Nofima’s contribution of $172 thousand.  Chitopack, the website of the EU project, contains information on the work with chitosan packaging.

Information: MAVI, Research and Development, sud srl V.le dell’industria 1, 04011 Aprilia (LT), Italy (phone 06.9296261, fax 06.9281523, email rs@mavicosmetics.it, webpagehttp://www.mavicosmetics.it/mavi2008_e/active-maviceuticals--solution-.html).

Information: Morten Sivertsvik, Director of Research, Processing Technology, Nofima, Måltidets Hus, Richard Johnsensgate 4, P.O. Box 8034, NO-4068, Stavanger, Norway (phone +47-51-84-46-37, mobile +47-905-97-998, email morten.sivertsvik@nofima.no).

The best and most incredible piece of news from the last two weeks is that Lori underwent three days of stereo tactic (cyber knife) brain surgery to remove several lesions from her brain and she came through with flying colors.

She is in a 28 day purge / cleansing from chemo period and if she shows no progression (please God !!!) she has been accepted into the MUC 1 vaccine trail in Dallas which we feel has real hope for along term possibility of remission. 

This is Lori after two years of fighting metastatic brain cancer. She really is my hero. 

It gets better.

We have been working with a very impressive international business group to put together a deal to bring GBT technology and production operations to several global locations in 2014.

Last week we closed that deal. That is not the exciting part. One of the major players in that deal has a close relationship with a leading international researcher in stem cell research dealing with metastatic brain lesions and tumors. He gave us all the contacts, opened up the doors of communication and made the initial introductions. 

Do not tell me prayer does not work miracles.

Still doubtful? Tonight a dear family friend and brilliant attorney called to let us know that Weill Cornell University in New York City has just discovered a gene mechanism, "NTR 708" that when locked down stops the spread of triple negative breast cancer tumors. 

(Note to HBO: Bill Maher is a very intelligent guy but he is also an idiot).

And on the frivolous side, I have not even found time yet to see "Iron Man 3" which I know will be 120 minutes of pure escapism for me. 

I am really looking forward to seeing that one night this week.