A California foodtech startup is growing succulent portions of Pacific yellowtail in their labs, from basic fish cells, making the San Diego company one of the technologically advanced food labs in the country when it comes to growing seafood in a laboratory. Blue Nalu got started about two years ago and is now considered one of the premier foodtech startups on the West Coast, where competition is getting fierce in the lab-bred seafood market. BlueNalu demonstrated the versatility and convenience of their product last week on a pier in San Diego Bay by having a professional seafood chef prepare some delicious meals from the lab-bred yellowtail, including sushi, seafood bisque, and even fish tacos. A spokesperson for the startup says the yellowtail product should be available in select groceries within the next six months.
CEO Lou Cooperhouse of Blue Nalu told reporters that sustainable lab-bred fish products will significantly reduce the impact of industrial fishing methods in the oceans of the world. Deep sea trawlers now drag the bottoms of most of the world’s oceans, not only netting food fish but many other non-food life forms which are then thrown back into the ocean, usually in such a traumatized condition that they die and literally choke up the surrounding waters with so much decaying organic matter that normal ocean scavengers can’t handle the influx.