Did you know that chefs are now able to use truly sustainable Kabeljou in their kitchens all year round thanks to a marine fish farm operating in East London?
Kingfish Enterprises, under the guidance of General Manager Andre Bok, has developed the systems and technology required to farm marine fish on land. “My life ambition has been to farm marine species like Kob and Yellowtail sustainably – it has taken years and years of trial and error to get to this point, so we are very excited to be sharing this product with the public at long last,” says Andre. One of the biggest benefits to using farmed kabeljou is that it is a sustainable source of fish. Wild-caught Kabeljou is a red-listed species due to overfishing and degraded estuarine habits, but farmed Kabeljou has been green-listed by the South African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (SASSI).
The farming process is also sustainable – the company can produce fish without the need for harmful chemicals, hormones, or antibiotics. Furthermore, organic waste from the fish is effectively removed through living biological filters.
WHAT CAN CHEFS EXPECT?
Chefs can also expect another, noticeable difference – farmed fish has a higher fat content than wild-caught, which means it stays firm and juicy during the cooking process. Its consistent availability is another big perk – farmed fish is available year-round which allows chefs to put it on the menu permanently.
“We have an unbroken cold chain getting to market,” says Andre. “Our fish come out of the tanks and straight into ice slurry, which results in a firm fillet of the best possible quality and longer shelf life. Wild-caught fish can sit on the deck of a boat for quite some time before reaching the shore.”
Chefs can also request the fish at a particular size. Some chefs prefer to serve a plate-sized fish, others a portion of a fillet. The farmer can consistently cater for both requirements allowing the restaurant to develop a ‘signature dish’ for their clients.
SO HOW ARE THE FISH FARMED?
Kingfish Enterprises uses recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) to control the production of its fish from broodstock through egg, all the way to harvest size. The company has the capacity to produce 300 tons of fish a year and the entire production process is controlled.
The broodstock spawn under controlled conditions, and Kingfish grow the algae and the zooplankton to feed the larvae. They hatch out the tiny eggs (1mm in diameter), raise the larvae up to a size where they’re big enough to feed on dry food and the fish are then fed dry food until market size. The fish are held in tanks on land, with fresh, filtered water continuously moving through them. Care is taken to ensure that there are never too many fish in a tank and that they are all of equal size – all to ensure that they are as comfortable as possible.
The feed is in the form of pellet with ingredients sourced from the sustainably managed South African anchovy fishery, as well as locally sourced soya, vitamins and minerals. A harvest sized fish of 1kg needs only 1.3kg of feed over its lifetime, so this is one of the most efficient methods of producing a high-quality edible protein.
A wild kob will eat about 10kg of wild fish to put on 1kg of its own bodyweight, while farmed kob only needs to eat about 1kg of anchovy to put on 1kg of bodyweight. The farmed fish are given a balanced diet and they have no need to escape predators, undertake seasonal migrations and starve during cold water periods, so they can put all their energy into growing instead of just surviving. In this way, the farm helps to take strain off the wild fishery (which is classified as ‘collapsed’), as it supplies efficiently produced fish into the same market, but from a more sustainable source.
