OUR STORY
It all started in college…
In 1982, Hampshire College
student Josh Goldman was living in a student-built solar greenhouse growing vegetables
and raising tilapia when he pioneered an integrated system to use fish waste to
fertilize plants. Armed with a passion for the environment and a head for
science, Josh helped the college secure a major grant to build a bioshelter – an
ecologically integrated facility that was used to study and teach indoor
aquaculture. Thus, a lifelong dedication
to sustainable aquaculture was launched.
To
tilapia and beyond!
After
graduating with a bio-engineering degree, Josh co-founded Bioshelters, one of the
first and longest-operating indoor tilapia farms in the United States. There he used his aquaculture
system to fertilize hydroponic basil – a concept still employed to this day by Australis,
where the company’s barramundi manure is re-used by local farmers as
fertilizer.
Josh went on to found an indoor striped bass farm that was designed to conserve energy by using waste hot water from an adjacent styrofoam cup factory to heat its greenhouses (nothing like taking an environmental negative and turning it into a positive!). When he sold the striped bass business, Josh went on a three year search for ‘the perfect fish’. He consulted and travelled worldwide, trialing more than a dozen new species in an effort to find a fish that would combine strong commercial potential with long-term environmental advantages (he even helped to raise Arctic Char using reclaimed mine water in West Virginia). But still his quest continued.
Enter the Aussies
In 2003, Australian entrepreneur Stewart Graham was dining on a prized Australian fish called barramundi in his native Perth when the waiter told him it was farm raised. Amazed that such a delicious fish could come from aquaculture, Stewart decided to enter the industry and share Australia’s best kept secret with the broader world. Searching the globe for the right partner to help turn his vision into reality, Graham found Josh, who became enamored of barramundi’s ideal farming qualities: resistant to disease, rapid growth, and the ability to create omega-3s while eating grains like soy. Best of all, it was delicious! It was these two passions – a love of barramundi and a belief in sustainable seafood – that brought these two visionaries together to found Australis.
Broadening the Vision
Today, Australis operates one of the largest and most environmentally-friendly indoor fish farms in the world, harvesting 2 million pounds of fresh barramundi per year. The company is recognized as a world leader in sustainable aquaculture by leading environmental groups such as Environmental Defense, Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch Guide and Seafood Choices Alliance. It is also broadening its mission beyond barramundi to bring other healthy and sustainable species, like basa, to the world.
It all started with a dream and a conviction -- that you can do well by doing good. Now that dream is a reality; for our company, our community, and our planet.