May 25, 2014 — A local company is receiving worldwide exposure in the latest issue of National Geographic magazine.
Blue Ridge Aquaculture, which is based at the Martinsville Industrial Park, is featured in a story in the magazine’s June issue called “How to Farm a Better Fish.” The piece is part of an eight-month series on food security and sustainability.
The story focuses on aquaculture — the growth of aquatic animals and plants for food — as the future of the seafood industry. It includes interviews with more than half a dozen people, including a fish geneticist in Shanghai, a company president in Panama, and Blue Ridge Aquaculture President Bill Martin, at what the writer describes as “a dark, dank warehouse in the Blue Ridge foothills of Virginia.”
Writer Joel K. Bourne Jr. begins the piece with Martin.
In the dark warehouse, Bourne writes, “Bill Martin picks up a bucket of brown pellets and throws them into a long concrete tank. Fat, white tilapia the size of dinner plates boil to the surface. Martin … smiles at the feeding frenzy.”
That smile could be heard in Martin’s voice Thursday as he discussed the exposure that comes with National Geographic’s 5.1 million worldwide circulation.
After the print edition hits newsstands Tuesday and the online edition gains traction on social media, Martin expects to hear from people interested in investing in the company. It’s happened before, such as when Blue Ridge was featured in Delta’s Sky magazine and in numerous industry publications, he said.
Read the full story at the Martinsville Bulletin