The answer to the first question is that in a closed containment system you would be forced to increase your densities over what we would like to maintain in the cages, or over what we do maintain, which is between 15 kilos and 20 kilos per cubic metre. That's at maximum, just before going to market. The entire site would never get to that level, whereas in a closed containment system, I can see you being in the neighbourhood of 50 plus, just to try to make the economics work. That brings with it a whole host of other challenges. How do you maintain water quality? The amount of water that you would have to pump through those fish represents some significant challenges. It's not that we haven't tried closed containment in salmon aquaculture.
One of the earliest closed containment facilities in the world was a company down in Nova Scotia in the early 1970s called Sea Pools. They tried to grow trout and failed. There have been others tried in Cape Breton and the Gaspé peninsula. They've been tried in a variety of areas, all of them ending up with severe challenges as the biomass grew. The first year, when you're on your way to 1.4 kilos, that's the easy part. Going the next two and a half to three kilos, that's where the real challenge starts, in a closed containment system.
So it will be interesting to see how the Atlantic Salmon Federation makes out with their research down at the Freshwater Institute. I know that institute well; they're very good. But we will need to watch that closely.
On the other part of your question, which is marketability, I think there are some real sustainability issues, carbon footprint issues, with closed containment that are not going to play well in the market.