KAILUA, KONA, Hawai'i — U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez yesterday praised a local open-ocean fish farm for its success, saying similar aquaculture businesses would play a key role in helping the nation fight overfishing and battle a seafood trade deficit.

Gutierrez toured the Kona Blue Water Farms land-based laboratory and open-ocean fish pens during a stop on the Big Island.

He was in Honolulu Friday for the funeral of HPD Officer Steve Favela, who died Nov. 26 from injuries he received in a motorcycle accident while escorting President Bush's motorcade during a Honolulu visit five days earlier. Gutierrez leaves today for trade discussions in South Korea and China.

"We are watching innovation take place here," Gutierrez said. "I'm very impressed. What a future."

Kona Blue Water Farms, one of the biggest open-ocean fish farms in the state, employs 40 people and ships its fish twice a week for sale to restaurants and retailers.

Founded in 2001, the company recently signed a deal to distribute to 24 stores in California, Arizona and Nevada.

Kona Blue raises 50,000 fish in each pen. It has five pens anchored in 200-foot-deep ocean, spread across 90 acres off the coast of Kona. A sixth pen will be added this week.

Each cage — 100 feet tall and 80 feet wide — represents $1.2 million in sales revenue, said Mike Wink, Kona Blue chief executive officer.

The company grows only one variety of fish, Kona Kampachi. It's a high-value Hawaiian yellowtail known as amberjack or kahala when caught in the wild.

Gutierrez said U.S. aquaculture looks likely to become a more important industry and is a focal point of President Bush's Ocean Action Plan.

"Over 70 percent of the seafood Americans consume annually is imported, and half of those imports come from foreign aquaculture operations," he said. "The U.S. annual seafood trade deficit is $8 billion."

Gutierrez also noted recent dire predictions about overfishing in the world's oceans.

"Those two things are driving us to look seriously at aquaculture," he said. "The United States needs a strong commercial fishing industry and a robust aquaculture industry to meet projected seafood demand. This is something we can compete in and win at in the future."

Hawai'i is among the leading marine aquaculture locations in the United States. Experts say Hawai'i's annual fish farm sales may grow fivefold to $200 million in the next five to 10 years.

The industry will provide Hawai'i with high-tech, long-term jobs, Gutierrez said.

"The people they put together here — the marine biologists, hatcheries management, chief officers — it seems like it's a Silicon Valley of aquaculture."

Kona Blue co-founder and President Neil Sims hosted Gutierrez for lunch at the Kona plant and took him on a tour of the facility, including a boat ride to offshore pens.

"It's a tremendous validation of the significance of this industry for the entire country," Sims said of the visit by a member of President Bush's Cabinet.

ON THE WEB

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE: WWW.DOC.GOV

Kona Blue Water Farm: www.kona-kampachi.com