Underwriting High-Intensity Aquaculture
Biological Constraint and Capital Structure
High-intensity aquaculture systems — including land-based flow-through and recirculating systems — are often evaluated using analytical frameworks borrowed from traditional salmon farming or infrastructure capital.
Both lenses are incomplete.
This paper proposes a structural framework for evaluating capital-dense aquaculture assets. It examines how biological headroom, recovery dynamics, subsystem coupling, and utilization discipline interact with capital intensity to determine working capacity, replacement burden, leverage tolerance, and long-term equity durability.
The focus is not technology comparison. It is underwriting calibration.
For investors, lenders, operators, and boards evaluating high-intensity aquaculture, the distinction between design capacity and sustainable working capacity is not an execution detail — it is a structural capital allocation variable.
Length: ~30 pages
Last Updated: February 2026
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