Jon - researcher, working here for 18 yrs. involved in aquaculture related research focused on developing new seafood production technologies

1:00:00 UMBI = University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute, umbrella org for 4 centers devoloping biotech in MD - medical, agricultural, marine, advanced research in biotech geared towards proteins & protein structure, drug development

1:10:00 COMB = center of marine biotechnology, devoted to studying, protecting, enhancing marine resources, this close to Chesa have a lot of projects aimed at understanding and preserving the Bay

1:12:00 institute started in 1985

1:20:00 COMB has three areas = aquaculture & fisheries, microbial ecology/diversity, natural products chemistry

2:00:00 in this facility demonstrating you can grow sustainable seafood in an urban location, we're in downtown Baltimore, can be very close to a distribution network such as the BWI airport, retail areas such as Gessup retail market, have an urban proximity that can be used for commercial purposes, show to investors, can be done in old reclaimed brown-field buildings, old warehouses, you can use what exists, you can use urban areas where labor, you can create jobs, can use municipal water supplies and energy grids, all can come together to make cost-effective sustainable seafood

3:20:00 proximity to Bay allows them to work on issues with Bay - researcher working on bioremediating algae blooms

5:00:00 Chesa influenced by human development, affects runoff to bay, by fishing methods, nets that scrape the bottom disrupting oyster/sea-grass beds, industrial pollutants, ag pollutants, fertilizers, ecosystem not equipped to deal with

6:00:00 we are more efficient hunter-gatherers, are hunting ourselves out of wild seafood stocks, we need to develop hightech solutions that will let us solve some of the problems we've created and move towards a sustainable way of using the Bay's resources - this is where biotech comes in

6:45:00 biotech allows to get away from taking resources from Bay and grow fish, shellfish in sustainable bio-secure systems, grow in pristine environment

7:40:00 can know your seafood not high in mercury and PCBS

8:00:00 facility is mostly for understanding Chesa, understanding what we've got, secondly aim for protection, have to fix some of problems we've created so making biotech solutions, third aspect understanding how should we best utilize the resources - how sustainable - this where we move away from removing resources & disrupting natural populations

9:15:00 still will always be wild fisheries but those can be slowly replaced/largely supplemented by growing same fish in recirculating facilities/aquaculture facilities

9:30:00 global demand for fish is high enough that we can't meet the demands of global seafood market w/ wild caught fish

9:50:00 this year for first time aquaculture production surpassed wild fisheries production of seafood, trend moving away from wild caught fisheries products

10:00:00 there are issues with aquaculture, many types

10:40:00 floating nets can be disruptive to environments, have seen in NE and NW problems with salmon farming spread of disease, pathogens - sealice, big issue with escapes interbreeding with wild stocks

11:15:00 issues w/ feeding & waste - put a lot of food in that goes into local environment, feces also goes into enviro - input of nutrients into local enviro, can be disruptive

12:00:00 sometimes antibiotics fed to salmon, can go into enviro

12:15:00 we're trying to develop ways to grow fish without some of the same issues

13:00:00 we're growing fish in high concentration, just like in an elementary school high rate of disease transmission, we're working on microbial level to make fish happy in high concentrations

14:30:00 ways of making fish perform better w/out changing @ molecular level - can give better food, can adjust to make optimal growing conditions - extend spring/summer conditions

15:00:00 developing technologies to be used immediately - recirculating aquaculture technology, oyster diagnostics developed - can you diagnose oysters before sick? know if carrying pathogens, ways to culture crabs in technology - not commercial yet, can't develop crab aquaculture farms yet but could help soft-shell crab industry

16:15:00 also looking at algael bio-fuels, can't always use fossil fuels, algae is lipid-rich, oil-rich, harvest that oil and convert to biofuels

17:00:00 favorite food = soft shell crab