Shetland Island Cod Farm Closes After Losing £40 Million In 3 Years - Guardian

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A revolutionary scheme to grow organic cod in Scottish fish farms, touted as the ethical answer to a global crisis in fish stocks, has been shut down after it lost £40m in three years. The world's first attempt to farm organic cod, "No Catch" fish was sold as a breakthrough in sustainable fisheries. Its costly marketing campaign boasted it would "save the planet" and claimed celebrities such as Demi Moore had savoured its ethically-conscious produce.

"Not too high a price to pay for a clear conscience," its adverts said.
But the administrators Grant Thornton, brought in earlier this year to rescue the Shetland-based business from total collapse, admitted that organic cod farming had been a financial disaster and had no realistic chance of succeeding.

It has sold the firm's fish- farming business to two Norwegian-owned companies, who will instead begin producing organic salmon in Shetland's coastal waters. Its last supplies of cod – totalling about 3,400 tonnes - would now be sold off at knock-down prices, less than a tenth of its original cost in the shops.

The announcement confirmed mounting suspicions on Shetland – where accusations of bloated expense accounts and luxurious lifestyles at No Catch have been rife - that the much-hyped cod farming experiment was dead. Dozens of jobs have already been lost.

EDIT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/apr/11/fishing.organics