In a basement lab at the Inner Harbor, one of the world's most intensely studied fish is swimming in a computer-monitored tank - a journey designed to end on a dinner plate.
For years, the gilthead seabream, a Mediterranean delicacy fished nearly to extinction, has been the focus of research at the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute's Columbus Center.
To try to mass produce saltwater fish indoors - away from the ocean - scientists have been probing what they eat, how they mate, their growth rate, the water temperatures they prefer and techniques for ridding the massive tanks of their waste.
Now they believe they've figured out how to do it - and make money.
"The beauty of the system is that the tanks can be installed in warehouses and placed anywhere - in the Midwest, near an airport or railway, in an inner-city neighborhood where jobs are scarce," said Yonathan Zohar, director of UMBI's Center of Marine Biotechnology and godfather of the decade-long project.
Zohar and colleagues have also performed the ultimate experiment on their seabream - arranging taste tests in Baltimore restaurants.
"It always sells well. People think it's great," said Kevin Bonner, executive general manager of McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurant.
So now Zohar's team is looking for a corporate partner to market and build a UMBI-designed fish farm.
The "closed loop" system is the first of its kind - a recirculating tank farm that loses almost no water and produces a saltwater fish, Zohar says.
Other tank systems produce freshwater fish, but Zohar says a saltwater system ensures higher-quality fish with a wider range of health benefits.
Fish farming is hardly new. The Chinese have raised them for thousands of years. U.S. biologists have raised trout since the 1880s and catfish and tilapia since the 1970s. With sturgeon, Atlantic salmon, hybrid striped bass and a variety of shellfish thrown in, U.S. fish farming is a $1 billion a year business, federal officials say.
The problem: Many of these fish farms are based in oceans, ponds, estuaries and streams where they're subject to the vagaries of weather and where the waste creates environmental headaches, experts say.
With the latest government dietary guidelines promoting the health benefits of seafood, America's fish consumption is expected to increase from 11 million tons last year to 14 million tons by 2025, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
