Transcript – Halibut PEI Inc. in Victoria, PEI

Interview with Owner, Halibut PEI
Halibut PEI
1m55s

[Shot of flounder in tank]

[Text on screen] Halibut PEI, Victoria, Prince Edward Island. A PEI First

“We decided, after being in operation for over a year now that we didn’t just want to be a grow-out operation for halibut, we also wanted to take them at a much smaller stage, take advantage of some of the opportunities that we have here for accelerated growth, given the fact that we have water from salt water wells that is very consistent in temperatures. It’s abiotic, so we have no problems with diseases or viruses and whatnot, so, it was in our best interest to start at a smaller stage than we had originally thought we would when we started here about some 18 months ago.

The fish are hatched over in Clarke’s Harbour, a company called Scotian Halibut.  They actually have brood stock that’s now roughly 11, 12 years in operation, and they’re breeding them over there, so when they bring the juveniles up to a size now of only 10-12 grams, we purchase them, bring them over here and start them off in our nursery.

What resources do we have here in Prince Edward Island that we’re not making use of? …and one of them is a salt water availability through ground water wells, and the fact that we’re been able to do that - we’ve been in operation for some 18 months…the uptake in the restaurants, the response we’ve gotten from people who’ve eaten our product has just been really overwhelming, to say the least.  I mean - I was at one of the restaurants the other night with my wife for dinner, and one of the servers called me over and asked me if I’d speak to a young couple that were actually eating our halibut at the time.  That’s pretty exciting.”