INDULGENCE

Been very busy at the site these days. Had a wonderful visit today from a true gentleman and very erudite individual. Ambassador Zamora the El Salvadoran ambassador to the USA spent the day on site. A very classy individual. 

Here he is inside the production module with Nick Harvin our production manager and Stephen White Berry our director of operations. 

Despite the fact we are trying to keep everything we have been  doing somewhat on the quiet, now that the first production module is up,

and the second production module is under construction there is really no way to keep what we are attempting quiet any more.

As you can see with this picture of the Ambassador in front of the first production module, it is no longer possible to not have some attention being directed our way with a lot of curiosity as to what we are doing.

The new GBT web site is up. It is not finished and there are a few minor corrections but it is a very big step forward for the company.

( www.globalbluetechnogies.com) 

As you all know from my previous blogs I am no fan of the press. However with the information on the web site and with Stephen and Nick handling the interviews that are now occurring, hopefully whatever article comes out will be mostly accurate.

That said, there are a few basic truths that need to be established.

We are a true non discharge system, we "do not" and I repeat do "not" put any of our water back into the bay or any estuary. 

We grow very large white shrimp, we believe larger than anyone in the world, using a totally natural methodology.

We know of no one else that has ever come close to doing what we do. 

The few pretenders out there that claim that they do or have done what we are doing are frankly, lying. 

Sorry to be so blunt but we can document from 1999 through today, in newspaper articles to field notes to audit certifications that this system is 15 full years in the making and we, the American team has been the driving and creative force behind this technology. 

Every dime spent in Texas to develop first the new and final  prototype and develop a system that works, as well as every dollar spent to date in the first production module has come from private investors who are just decent Americans who 1) believe we will succeed and 2) would like to see the USA produce something other than celebrities and cell phones before we die.

I could go on but not I am not really in the mood to get on my soap box tonight. I am traveling out of the USA for a few weeks tomorrow morning. What is great is the team running the Texas operation are young, capable, and frankly a heck of a lot smarter than me when it comes to making this technology perform at optimum levels. (and I am not being humble, they are that good).

I also have two other very interesting visitors yesterday evening. 

I won't name names as they represent some significant private investment money but I must say they too were a pleasure to have on site. They totally see what we are trying to do, which is simple , make money ethically and sustainably, and without screwing up the earth any more than we all ready have. 

One indulgence I am taking tonight, since this is my blog, I am going to humor myself with a short walk down memory lane. I am pretty sure none of our recent visitors were familiar with my background. 

(This is both a good and a bad thing). 

As my readers know I am not without a slew of detractors.

In any case, I am pretty sure they had not read my book "Undercover" so I thought I would run a few old pics from that book. 

Most of these was when I was much younger and had much more hair so please keep the laughter to a minimum.

The picture below is of me and my son Stephen in 2006, I think we were in South Africa or Chile, can't remember exactly but I always liked the pic. 

    This was me in Papua New Guinea around the year 2000.

                            This one below is a bit dated.

I met Richard Gere at Earth day back in DC in the late 80's. By the way he was a big star then but very gracious and decent and knowledgeable about the problems facing our planet.

                      I also had some serious hair back then. 

Below is one of my favorite pictures. I ran with an undercover anti poaching patrol in sub Saharan Africa several times from 1993-1995. This was the cover shot John Aquilino my partner chose for my book. I always thought it made me look brave despite the fact I was terrified most of the time I was in the bush with those guys. 

Below is one of my favorite pictures ever. It was taken with my dear friend the late Susan Butcher. 

She was not the first woman to win the Alaskan dog sled race , the Iditarod, that honor went to Libby Riddles but Susan won it three times and it was in larger part due to her popularity and her support that sled dogs in Alaska began to receive much better treatment during the race. 

I spent a lot of time at Susan's place in Manley Hot Springs, Alaska and she and her husband David Monson were just fine people. 

Here I am with a friend from Kalimantan circa 1993.

And finally with some of my family at my home in Maryland in 2013, I am older, fatter, still with a lot of hair, but surrounded by those sentient creatures I love. My family.

I guess tonight's blog has to be titled "Indulgence". 

Speaking to over at least 50 some people the past 6 months trying to explain our technology, why the project is going to work, what has gone into it, the money, the time, the ridicule, the disappointments, the excitement, the criticisms, the lies, I guess I just felt like pointing out I am a real person and I have been blessed with a life filled with experiences too incredible to make up and too full of characters to ever be dull.

And for the record I do not regret one moment of it. It has been a blessing and an adventure. 

This journey we call life is (hopefully) going to continue a bit longer (with God's grace) and a bit of luck.

John Aquilino says I need to write another book. Maybe I will. 

I hope my next book will be a book about how Lori beat triple negative breast cancer.

Then maybe a book about how you can build a sustainable profitable seafood business ethically. If I get those two written then I think I have at least one more book of stories of my global adventures left in me. 

Unlike a lot of people I do not have to make up or embellish a word, my stories are real and they stand on their own.

By the way to all of you, friends, supporters, and even some of the "haters" thanks for reading my blog.

To quote a very dear friend and character who recently passed away at 93, "it helps make me still feel relevant" and that is a gift in and of itself. 

Back to Blogging

Going to try and get active on my blog again. 

I know lots of our followers and investors like personal updates. 

Frankly two things have held me back. 

1) I am busier than ever and 2) I am finding that a lot of "less than scrupulous" individuals try and take what I write and incorporate our work into their own agendas making claims based on our success that they frankly can not deliver. 

Discouraging but one of the down sides of the so called social media phenomena. 

Spent last week at my home on Query Mill Rd. 

Had great meetings with our investment team.

They are closing in on securing the 6 million in this offering for GBT-C . They will break escrow at 1.5 million this week. Modules 1 & 2 are within range of being up and being  debt free.

Dome 1 should be permanently inflated by the time I get back on 2/12. 

Dome 2 to be shipped 2/15. Cold weather has us about 2 months behind where I had wanted to be but warm weather has to come soon.

Lori got great news on 2/7. No new brain lesions, tumor markers down, liver function up, the chemo cocktail Dr. O'Shaugnessy at Baylor has concocted is working. Not a cure but a much needed respite.

Jim is going to take a look at some potential sites for a project on TCI.

I am still leaning toward having our first over seas production farm in South or Latin America. Just makes sense in so many ways. 

We have some pretty impressive visitors visiting the Texas site the week of February 16th.

People are starting to realize that unlike the shysters and scammers and actual frauds that tend to predominate much of this profession we actually can and do grow large shrimp in abundance.

Our international partners continue to make progress for a possible site in Asia.

Had our first single investor buy into the GBT-C project for a million. People are starting to recognize what we have accomplished and its potential.

We formed a sales marketing and distribution company. 

It will sell and market all GBT production globally. 

We will also be seeking other marine protein from other producers to sell and distribute. 

This is something I contemplated doing as far back as 2006. Finally getting to it. Could be exciting.

We hope to stock shrimp in April at GBT-C. 

The objective is to harvest no later than September. 

Need water to warm up in the bay. 

Things should get interesting. 

Just have to pray Lori continues to do well and holds the cancer at bay as long as God allows.

As you all know I love all animals and am fascinated with wild life in general.

John Harvin found this fellow on site today.

Very cool We think he is an Eastern or Slender Grass Lizard. 

Genus is Ophisaurus, not sure of species. We released him safely on site.

It is amazing what a cornucopia of life exists on our site.

I have to close this first blog I have written in a few months by mentioning my two good buddies in Maryland. 

We used to have 8 cats at home but last month we lost "Tigger" our 14 year old tiger cat.

So, the last cats standing are;

Wigs: 

And Oliver: 

They have been with us over 16 years. 

They are great buddies. 

I know some people are not crazy abut cats but I always kind of like what Mark Twain said about cats.

Twain supposedly remarked that "if mankind could be crossed with a cat it would be a step forward for mankind and two steps back for the cat".

I think Mark Twain knew of what he spoke.

Will try and get back on my blog in a more regular fashion.

Finding Peace

I was in the Caribbean last week mainly for a business trip.

But, I did manage to go to my destination two days early with Stephen, my stepson and get in a day and 1/2 of fly fishing for bonefish in some of the most beautiful waters in the world.

It was a blast. Stephen had never hooked or landed a fish on a fly rod. Having a bonefish be his first taste of that magical connection was truly "one of those moments I will never forget ". 

We had a great guide, perfect weather, and were lucky enough to get on fish each day. I caught and landed three average 3-5 pound bonefish releasing each and actually hooked and played one of the largest bonefish I think I ever had on a line until he (or she) decided they had had enough and tore into the mangroves lining the strip of skinny water we were fishing and that was the end of that. 

We saw lemon sharks, a nurse shark over 9 feet long, the largest green turtle I have ever seen in the wild, and a myriad of birds and other aquatic species including one small blue crab who was not the least bit intimidated as we passed over his hiding place in less then a foot of sea water. 

I love to fly fish. I put away all other fishing gear over 20 years ago now and have only fished using a fly rod since that time. I am not particularly good but I am competent enough to catch trout, bonefish, bass, etc., as long as the fish are not too smart. And yes, I release every fish I catch if the fish is not seriously injured during the time it is on the line. Not because I won't eat fish, fish are one of my favorite dietary staples. I just cannot bring myself to kill something that has given me such a "gift". Even though the fish was not willingly seeking to make it a gift as such.

(Read on you and you will understand what that "gift" is for me).

I think in a recent blog I mentioned I was rereading a book I had read 20 years ago about fly fishing. I just finished it on this trip. The book is "Fly Fishing through the Midlife Crisis" by Howell Raines.

The book has an incredible amount of good information about fly fishing in practice but as you probably guess from its title it also has an incredible amount of philosophy, religion, and even spiritual themes contained within its pages.

It is one of my favorite books and given the copious amount of reading I do that is saying a lot. 

Rereading it after 20 years provided me an even deeper and more meaningful insight into my life and the appeal of fly fishing for myself and so many other modern day men than it had when I first picked it up in 1993 as I said about 20 years ago.

This is a passage typical of the writing and nature of Raines' book.

"As far as equipment goes we are living in the golden age of fly fishing. Where there used to be only a couple of hundred truly expert fly fishermen, there are now thousands who can match the best practitioners of the sport. Naturally as in any large group some are jerks. All are snobs when it comes to what they really think about other forms of fishing".

He goes on: 

"That is because of the aesthetic principle at the core of fly fishing..... Fly fishing is to fishing as ballet is to walking...It is interesting that many men after they have been through other kinds of fishing, usually forms that involve powerful boats, heavy rods, and brutally strong fish.

Perhaps it is because they are getting wiser and less hormonal. Or perhaps it is that as men get older, some of them develop holes in their souls, and they think this disciplined, beautiful, and unessential activity may close those holes"......

20 years ago that passage would not have made me put down the book and wipe a mist from my eyes, today it does. 

Regardless, I love fly fishing regardless of the fish being pursued and yes, in some way or form or fashion it calms me down, it clears my mind, and most importantly it mends my soul.

After the movie " A River Runs Through It " based on the Norman McLean novel, narrated by Robert Redford and with a younger Brad Pitt as one of its stars, fly fishing leaped in popularity for a while. I think it has leveled off since then but I have no statistics to back up that claim.

My roots and literary attachments to all things fly fishing run long and deep. I read "The Big Two Hearted River" by Hemingway in 1927 (I think or at least published around that time) as a freshman in college and was fascinated by Nick Adams, the central character in the story where Hemingway used fly fishing to illustrate the impotence of faith and the power of fear. 

McLean's book written 50 years later would use fly fishing as a metaphor for one's search in life for grace and faith.

I have read at least 50-75 other books written and published between those dates (1927-1957) about fly fishing  as well.

And I have read another 30 more more written since 1957. 

It is safe to say books about fly fishing represent a large genre in my reading compendium.

Whatever quality or insight fly fishing represents or brings out in each individual that becomes a devotee may be as varied as the number of fly patterns tied in an effort to match the hatch of a multitude of insects, bugs, roaches and other "fish food". 

For me, the answer is quite a simple one. I find "peace". 

Or better yet, "peace of mind". 

Not a permanent peace, but a temporary one that serves to suspend time and release my thoughts from my emotions and the onslaught of the pressures and travails and pain and uncertainty of day to day existence. For me at this place and time in my existence there is no better "gift".

I am already looking forward to that next time.

                                      The author at peace

Things That Made Me Smile This Week

The past week has not been one of my favorite seven days.

Some historian/minister somewhere, (I actually am so tired of this kind of crap that I hardly read the piece) now claims that Jesus Christ was a construction of the Roman Empire's imagination, invented to distract the Jews from violence against the Empire.

Then there was an article debunking King David of the Old Testament as a war monger conqueror who basically used force to combine Israel and Judah and that is why we have the modern Jewish state and the almost universal support by the Jewish people of Israel.

Then there where the endless articles and talk shows regurgitating the ongoing lies and posturing of Congress and the President as each side tried to make the other seem like the villain in the current fiscal crisis which frankly is simply the latest expression of the greed and ignorance of those we continue to elect to run the government.

I watched the entertainment industry press continue to condemn Miley Cyrus and are now all her "haters" for doing what in my opinion Cher, Madonna, Lady Gaga, hell even, Tina Turner did in their day, i.e. use sex to sell records. Miley just seemed to do it better. I mean a world wide number 1 song two weeks after shaking her butt and sticking her tongue out of the side of her mouth on an awards show designed to feature the outrageous.

And finally while rereading one of my favorite books "Fly Fishing through the Midlife Crisis" by author Howell Raines, I came across an old article from the early nineties that basically called Raines everything from a "liar" to an "egotist" to a "fraud". 

Plus Michigan lost to Penn State on Saturday. I mean how sad was that.

So, today, a Sunday, I decided to ignore all social media, all news outlets, all reporters, and all scholars, and other sundry and prolific pundits be they, sports commentator's acting like they know something the rest of us don't, be they comedians acting as political commentator's or be they political pundits who are so stupid as to even make bad comedians. 

Seriously, I ignored every freaking expert out there. Did not look at CNN or FOX or HBO or read a paper or pick up a new book exposing someone or something, or doing some form of revisionism. 

Instead I went for a long hike early in the morning, stopped and watched sea gulls fly "en masse" seeking scraps from happy looking tourists, watched two jack rabbits running like crazy across a field and drove a few hundred miles and just thought. 

It has been a while since I just thought. 

And I thought about things that made me happy, like how lucky I am to still be alive and pretty healthy for my age. And that made me smile.

I smiled at the thought of the young female alligator Stephen caught out of pond six on the site and we put on a sanctuary earlier this week. 

Not many people would  "save" an alligator but to me she is one of God's creatures, as surely as we are. That made me smile.

And I smiled and remembered I used to like "Hannah Montana" and I that I still like Miley Cyrus and her new music, as much (or more) then I used to like Cher and Madonna, etc.

I smiled with the realization that I lost all respect for all politicians decades ago, which probably does not say very much positive about me. But it made me smile anyway.

I remembered what I think was Mark Twain's or maybe Will Roger's famous comment that "Congress was the only true criminal class in America". 

True then, truer now. And I smiled.

And I smiled even more when I thought about how for 2,000 years plus, countless individuals and institutions have tried to tear down Jesus Christ and he just emerges stronger and purer and a more remarkable proof of God's existence than we as humans can or will ever grasp while we are on this earth.

And I thought, regardless of Howell Raines perfections or imperfections Chapter 9 "The Black Dog" in his book on "Fly Fishing Through the Midlife Crisis" just may be the most honest and lucid explanation of why and how men fear and react to age, mortality, and death ever written. 

And for that alone Howell Raines deserves our gratitude and appreciation. And again thinking of that single chapter made me smile. 

I smiled when I recalled that even in the Old Testament no one ever said King David was perfect, he was a human being. 

That is the whole point of Jesus, we are so flawed without him we really have no chance of something better after this life ends. That really made me smile.

And I thought if you want to buy in to the views of all the pseudo-genius's, who think they have all the answers of how the universe began (it just appeared out of nothing aka "The Big Bang"), what the universe is comprised of ( strings, particles, energy, or something), etc., that do not believe anything exists for us after this life ends, then there isn't anything to look forward to regardless. 

That made me smile and actually laugh out loud.

So, at the end of the day as I pulled my truck back into the parking lot and saw Lori in her wheelchair laughing and playing with one of the poodles despite the cancer demon she is fighting, I smiled yet again.

As I walked into the house my cell phone beeped and I looked down and saw a text from a friend who went to Penn State. That did not make me smile. 

Hey, nothing is 100%.

A GRAND JOURNEY

I wrote this update to a few of our team members the other day. It has received such positive feed back I thought I would share it on my blog.

Written on October 9, 2013

"I keep trying to remember most people (including investors and some on our own team) do not have any real grasp of the size and scope of what we at GBT are now within weeks of bringing to the world.

We have had the biology and the water quality systems figured out since 2005. 

Heck, we knew in 1999 we could grow shrimp (and other fin fish species) bigger, faster, more efficiently, sustainably, and in a  natural fashion, better than anyone or any system in the world could even imagine.

The real challenge (for me at least) had always been conceiving, designing, and then actually building the integrated multitude of mechanical aspects essential to developing an industrial scale, commercial sustainable aquaculture operation, of the size and scope we envisioned. 

I was never (and still am not) interested in just developing a boutique system that could be sustainable and make a few million dollars in profit. 

I wanted to build something green, environmentally friendly, natural, bio-secure, and that produced "healthy protein" on a grand scale. 

I wanted to develop a "game changer" to use an archaic phrase.

I won't bore everyone again with the multitude of "technological break through's " we have made since 1999 and especially since 2011. (I also won't remind you I thought I could do it in 7 years or less).

But I think the following words from one of the engineers at Arizon who are currently producing one of the largest dome structures in the world for GBT's first production module, coupled with two pictures might just help everyone get a small grasp of the scale of what we are about to put into production. 

One of the engineers from Arizon wrote an e-mail message to Jim Salmon today. The following is an excerpt from that E-mail. 

"We have been making good progress over the past 4 days.  The AHU’s are on schedule for shipping October 21, and likely one will ship the Friday before.  

The fabric is also still on schedule.  Sections 2 & 3 are 100% welded up, Section 1 is 80% and Section 8 is 70%.  I know, we are making them out of order.  It is all part of the grand plan".

I love the words " the grand plan" because that is what this journey has been, a convoluted torturous march toward a grand plan. 

Each dome (module) has eight ponds in each GBT structure with each pond holding about 1 million gallons of water in each pond. (Yes, that is 8 million gallons of water under a single module and each module is over 1,000 feet long and 155 feet wide and 35 feet or so tall).

The domes are held up by forced air creating a positive pressure that makes them both incredibly strong and adds to bio-security. There are two air handling (AHU's) units per dome and the technology that goes into them is amazing.

No, nothing about this has been easy but when you seek to make a paradigm shift in any technology or production process I guess it is not supposed to be easy. 

I also guess that is why so many of those who continue to claim they can do what we are doing or that they indeed thought of all of this themselves, have failed so miserably. 

They never could understand, let alone imagine the vision I had back at Gulfport, Mississippi in 1999. 

Enjoy the attached pics of the  AHU's.

In a few weeks we will be taking pictures of the actual facility in operational mode. It will have been a long torturous and yes painful journey, but definitely a "grand one".

(please excuse any typos or misspellings, I am just a tad tired tonight). "

I'M BACK

It has been a while. I took a hiatus.

Writing had gotten almost too draining.

I was starting to relive every agonizing minute of every agonizing day.

That said, writing this blog has always been more about a catharsis for myself then about having readers or followers. That said, I appreciate the thousands of you and yes it is thousands of you that actually take the time to read much of my drivel.

OK, so here is a quick catch up. Lori continues to battle her cancer. She is currently being treated at Baylor Cancer Center by Dr. Joyce O'Shauyhnessy and we love her.

Lori is on a chemo cocktail of avastin, taxol, and cisplatin (spellings are probably all wrong but what the hell, Lori is alive and this is month 33 since she contracted tnbc.) They and I mean by "they" every doctor except Dr. Joyce gave her a few months at best. 

Lori is a fighter and she has a long way to go. Current plan is to put out fire of metastatic activity , make a FANG vaccine and then look at stem cell research.

Keep praying. Prayer really works.

Shrimp aquaculture project is going beyond well. I don't even like to talk about it anymore because it is going to shock the world in 2014. One thing I must take a bit of pride in. One of our very special (and bright) international partners wanted to do a  taste test as he felt our shrimp might be good enough to be "sushi grade". 

I was opposed to the idea. I mean hell, I know we can sell our shrimp at top dollar now, why lower expectations.

My son, Stephen, a trained chef insisted I was wrong and he arranged and set up a taste test of GBT shrimp in Port Isabel two weeks ago with a leading and I mean a world renown leading Japanese chef flying in from Japan to take stock of what our flavor profile really is with GBT shrimp.

I stayed away too nervous to be involved. Stephen and the team at PI handled everything.

I think the pictures and the signed certificate say it all.

So, moral of story. Have faith in your product and always trust your # 1 son.

On fun notes I just finished reading "Sea Monsters on Medieval and Renaissance Maps" which was great fun. 

Just read "Medieval Dogs" by Kathleen Walker-Meikle , which frankly was "underwhelming".

Rereading "Sex, Death, and Fly Fishing" which always perks me up. Author is John Gierach and if you fish and have not read his works you are truly, sadly, lacking a major uplifting force in your life.

Going to reread Howell Raines "Fly Fishing through Midlife Crisis" soon. ( it is a book that helps keep me sane). 

Also starting to get my fly rods out, as it is about time for a bone fish fishing trip soon, somewhere.

I am back. It feels good.