While shooting our aquaculture feature, underwater photographer Richard Robinson found it disconcerting to see kingfish in tanks. “They’re almost like drones, you know? They’re just swimming in circles.”
Wild kingfish are “spectacular”, he says—bait balls involving big numbers of the apex predator “are one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen”. He’s torn: in awe of the wild fish, as well as the science that’s letting companies farm them in tanks. And he keeps thinking about how strange it is that the farm is so close to the sea. “If we can achieve this on land why can’t we get the ocean right?”