Company Looks To Start Net Pen Fish Farms

The Central U.P. Aquaculture group is asking the state for the ability to research the use of net pens on the Great Lakes as a way to raise fish.  The Canadian company Coldwater Fisheries wants to use net pens for a proposed $1.2 million farming and processing operation on Little and Big Bays de Noc in the Upper Peninsula.  Dave Anthony with the Aquaculture Group says the potential for the area is tremendous.

The company is looking to produce up to 3.5 million pounds of fish annually on the bays.  Net pen finfish aquaculture is the practice of raising fish in an underwater net that serves as a pen; hence the term.