Meet the companies tackling nine of humanity's biggest problems -- and making millions saving us from ourselves.
Problem #6: Overfishing
Problem #6: Overfishing
The background: Overfishing is depleting wild ocean fish stocks and threatening the $158 billion commercial fishing industry.

The solution: Hawaii startup Kona Blue is pioneering deepwater aquaculture to farm ocean fish. Although many companies grow freshwater tilapia and catfish, few have succeeded in farming flavorful deep-sea fish like yellowtail tuna and swordfish. Privately held Kona Blue raises a yellowtail-like fish off the coast of the Big Island of Hawaii - half a mile out to sea and 30 feet down.

Marine biologists Dale Sarver and Neil Anthony Sims raise Hawaiian amberjack, a native species that is called kampachi in Japan. Unlike most fish farms, Kona fish are raised in a controlled environment from hatch until harvest. The fish, called Kona Kampachi, retails for about $20 a pound.

The payoff: Former Horizon Organic chairman Tom McCloskey, now Kona Blue's chairman, says sales will reach $8 million to $10 million in 2007, up from just $2 million last year. Kona Blue is sold at select Whole Foods stores and served at the tables of top restaurants like the French Laundry in California's Napa Valley.

The opportunity: Kona Blue does not yet have any direct competitors employing its fish-farming techniques, though a couple of companies are gearing up their operations.

Global Warming

Oil Dependency

Hunger and Malnutrition

Dirty Air

Dirty Water

Overfishing

Epidemics

Drug-Resistant Infections

Waste Disposal
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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.