Looks Like Clinton County Might Be Getting An Eel Farm
According to the Detroit News, a Florida company is considering buying land in the St. Johns industrial park for their $30 million eel farm. The company, Aqua Vida Aquaculture, would use the facility to raise African longfin eel and American eel - a source of “high quality protein”. This facility would be the first of it's kind in the U.S. and would create about 25 jobs.
(Two words - "eel wrangler". I'm ready.)
The company is still lining up funding from investors so they don't have a timeline for when all this would happen.
The state has been analyzing the proposal for the last two years, trying to figure out what, if any, risks there might be. According to Kit Munday, the founder of Aqua Vida, the eels wouldn’t come into contact with lakes or rivers. But, wouldn't it be awesome if one of them got into Lake Ovid in Sleepy Hollow State Park and grew freakishly large? This screams tourist dollars and a NatGeo TV Channel special.
As a Clinton County resident, I'm all in.