Hawaii companies raising marine animals including fish, oysters and algae took in less revenue last year but remained near a record set in 2014, according to a government report published Thursday.
Local aquaculture industry sales slipped 3 percent to $76.2 million last year from $78.2 million the year before, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported.
Revenue in 2014 represented a 40 percent spike over the $55.7 million in sales reported in 2012; there was no comparable measurement of revenue in 2013.
The new report, compiled with assistance from the state Department of Agriculture, doesn’t provide much insight into what parts of Hawaii’s aquaculture industry are thriving or not, other than algae producers.
Algae, which Hawaii companies produce largely to make nutritional supplements, accounted for
$33.8 million in sales last year, up from $33.1 million the year before.
Revenue from three other categories of aquaculture in the report — shellfish, finfish and ornamental — wasn’t disclosed because doing so could enable competitors to discern revenue of individual private companies.
The last time such information was disclosed was in 2011 when revenue totaled $413,000 for shellfish, $1.5 million for finfish,
$2.5 million for ornamental and $10.3 million for a category dubbed “other” that included sales of baby fish by hatcheries.
The ornamental category includes fish such as koi and angelfish. Finfish include fish such as moi and tilapia.
The number of aquaculture farms also is no
longer given. In 2012, the last year this figure was available, there were 70 farms.
One new piece of data added to the report for last year was the number of workers in the industry, which was 406.