New York's LocalCoho solving RAS challenges, anticipates capital raise for expansion in 2024

Auburn, New York, U.S.A.-based recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) coho salmon farmer LocalCoho is months away from proving steady-state production at its pilot farm and anticipates kicking off a capital raise in the first half of 2024 to fund its next expansion.

The company – formerly known as Finger Lakes Fish – is currently operating a pilot RAS facility in New York serving markets in the Northeast U.S. In the past year, the company has secured investments from prominent aquaculture figures and organizations, including Peter Pan owner Rodger May and former land-based coho salmon farm operator Per Heggelund and aquaculture investment fund Cuna del Mar.

That funding, LocalCoho CEO Michael Fabbro told SeafoodSource, has helped the company solve what he calls the “achilles heel of RAS” – fish quality and taste.

Fabbro, who was named CEO in April 2022, said the company’s pilot facility is in the final steps of proving it has reached steady-state production levels, and more importantly, has proven it can farm coho salmon indoors and avoid some of the negative flavor profiles associated with tank-based aquaculture. He told SeafoodSource the company has had “notable” customers in the culinary scene of New York City.

“Our fish quality has been really outstanding,” he said. “With RAS farms, the question is often ‘what about the off flavors, what are you doing about the off flavors?’ We’ve really solved for that, there’s a few things we’re doing, and we’ve brought in some new technology.”

LocalCoho, Fabbro said, is using new technology during its purge staging that has helped the company remove any off-flavors. Farms using a RAS often institute some form of “purge” stage to remove off-flavors caused by biosolids and biofilms that form in RAS equipment over time. Fish raised in an a recirculating aquaculture system can develop a “musty” flavor due to the accumulation of geosmin, which a purge stage in a different system can help eliminate. 

Fabbro said the new technology, along with not feeding fish in the purge stage before saughter – has helped keep geosmin levels low. in LocalCoho's RAS.

“We’re getting a super-clean favor on our salmon right now. We do testing as well, and the tests are verifying that,” he said.

The company’s recent partnership with Shinkei Systems, a seafood technology startup, has also helped increase quality. Shinkei Systems is focusing on using AI and robotics to automate seafood processing and achieve an “ikejime” level of humane harvesting – which also benefits flavor.

“You’d really like to minimize or even eliminate the stress and the hormone release that accompanies stress, and then you also get a proper bleed-out,” Fabbro said. “The fish are tasting great, which is job number one.”

The next step is proving that its ... 

Photo courtesy of LocalCoho