Watercress is traditionally grown in outdoor aquatic systems, but there is increasing interest in its suitability for indoor hydroponic systems, such as in vertical farms . VF utilize hydroponic or aeroponic systems that allow plant stacking in multiple vertical or horizontal layers increasing the effective use of space and other resources, particularly water . Indoor vertical agriculture is well-suited to the production of leafy greens. Their fast growth rate, high harvest index, low photosynthetic energy demand and compact shape make them ideal for indoor farming technologies . VFs have multi-layered indoor crop production space with the use of artificial lights and soilless cultivation systems. With the capacity to control lighting, ventilation, irrigation, nutrient levels, and abiotic stress, VFs offer the potential of high and predictable yields and uniform produce alongside reduced water use and often no pesticide applications whatsoever . The future of indoor food production is likely to include other high-value horticultural crops such as several leafy greens, culinary herbs, strawberries, and flowers. Breeding targets for these crops include short life cycles, low energy demands, improved yield , small root systems, as well novel sensory and nutritional profiles . VF systems are gaining traction for commercial scale cultivation, partly due to their ability to deliver locally-grown food to urban areas, with lower environmental costs and also to deliver food in locations where fresh produce cannot be easily grown . These systems also offer a unique opportunity to tailor crop characteristics to changing consumer preferences by altering environmental conditions such as light quality for example , grow bench where blue light has been used to increase the glucosinolate content of several Brassica species including, pak choi and watercress .

Here we investigate differences in yield, morphology, and glucosinolate content of watercress grown under three different cultivation systems . This research provides foundation information to suggest that high yield watercress crop production is possible in vertical farming systems and that watercress quality may be further enhanced for improved anti-cancer characteristics. We have shown that the quality and yield of the leafy green salad crop watercress can be significantly improved by growth in an indoor vertical hydroponic system, enriched in blue light. The CDC ranked watercress as the most nutrient dense crop based on the content of 17 nutrients that are associated with reducing chronic disease risk . Our results show the yield and nutrient content of watercress can be enhanced even further by utilizing a novel vertical indoor growing environment other than the current commercial system used in the UK. Yield increases may be explained by the ability to tightly control environmental conditions in the VF that generate a consistent optimal nutrient and temperature environment. The increase in glucosinolate content from UK to CA is probably explained by heat stress in CA, with the maximum temperature recorded at the CA site at 43.8 ◦C compared to 30.9 ◦C for the UK. Glucosinolate accumulation is associated with improved heat and drought stress tolerance in Arabidopsis and increases in GLSs are observed in heat-stressed Brassica rapa . Increases observed in GLS content in VF can be explained by prolonged blue light exposure and a longer growth period . The mechanism of different LEDs on GLS biosynthesis regulations still remain unclear, but a short-duration blue light photoperiod increased the total aliphatic GLSs in broccoli . A similar result from a genome wide association mapping of Arabidopsis also revealed that blue light controlled GLS accumulation by altering the PHOT1/PHOT2 blue light receptors .

Increasing blue light in the VF increased total GLSs content and although not statistically significant, it confirms the study by Chen et al. that showed increased GLSs content with increased blue light. Rosa et al. showed that GLS concentrations are more sensitive to the effect of temperature than of photoperiod and this is consistent with our results in total GLSs between the UK and CA sites. Our results support the idea that indoor farm cultivation is effective in promoting health-beneficial chemical properties. Watercress produced PBGLS in both the VF treatments, but this compound was not detected in either the UK or CA trials. PBGLS strengthens the nutrient profile of watercress. PEITC derived from PEGLS has already been proven to be an extremely effective naturally-occurring dietary isothiocyanates against cancer . Inhibitory potency increases several-fold when the glucosinolate alkyl chain gets longer , suggesting that PBITC, with its elongated alkyl chain compared to PEITC, may contribute an additional health benefit to this super food, although this remains to be proven. It is evident that watercress is particularly well-suited for indoor hydroponic growing systems, where plants exhibited the highest yielding leafy growth with improved nutritional profiles, ideal for consumer preferences. Altering the blue:red light ratio may further enhance the anti-cancer properties of this highly nutritious salad crop, but further studies are required to hone the light recipe for indoor cultivation. The premise of this study is that an increasing number of the world’s fisheries are producing or exceeding their maximum yield, while the world demand for seafood increases. Global per capita seafood consumption has increased steadily from 9.9 kg in the 1960s to 19.2 kg per capita in 2012 . This skyrocketing demand in conjunction with population growth and increased fishing efficiency has led to over exploitation of many marine fish stocks. Technological advancements have made accessible areas that were once too remote or too deep to be exploited. Commercial fishing involves deploying hundreds of miles of nets and dragging various apparatus along bottom habitats.

A side effect of this is environmental damage throughout ocean ecosystems, much of which is unobservable and immeasurable . Fishery management authorities have started adopting ecosystem-based management approaches, understanding that fish populations depend upon habitat integrity . Many fisheries stipulate gear restrictions and limited access, but enforcement, efficacy, and consideration of economic and social factors all vary on a case-by-case basis. Despite increased efficiency, fleet size, and access, wild capture fisheries’ annual production has stabilized to 1990 levels, varying up and down about three percent since 1998 . The relative consistency of wild catch over the past two decades, accompanied by the periodic dramatic stock collapse, such as the anchoveta crisis in 1998 and today’s California sardine fishery closure, suggests wild-capture marine food fish production may be at capacity. Yet to date, seafood production has risen to meet demand, outpacing world population growth twofold in annual growth rates since the 2000s. This has been made possible by the aquaculture industry, which has been growing rapidly in the past few decades: aquaculture contributed to 5 percent of seafood production in 1962, and an impressive 49 percent in 2012 . From some perspectives, aquaculture is a means to contribute to global food security while alleviating pressure on wild stocks and preventing environmental damage from impactful fishing gear. But to others, farmed seafood comes with its own variety of health and environmental risks, and is neither an adequate nor sustainable substitute for its wild counterpart.In regards to U.S. seafood consumption, plant nursery benches shrimp is the most consumed product, weighing in at 1.9 kg per year consumed by the average American . Despite this popularity, we remain dependent upon foreign production for upwards of 90% of shrimp products. In 2015 the U.S. imported almost 1.3 billion pounds of shrimp, valued at over $5.4B . The aquaculture industry continues expand, and import data prove shrimp is a top priority for the U.S. However, ecosystem-based assessments of commercial fisheries particularly malign shrimp fisheries. The primary gear type for shrimp fisheries is trawl gear . Certain types of trawls earn the highest rank among fishing gear in terms of physical and biological habitat damage . Also, trawling for small species leads to massive amounts of bycatch: roughly five pounds of non-target species per pound of shrimp in the U.S. fisheries. Some bycatch isretained, but the global average discard rate for all shrimp trawl fisheries is more than 62 percent, over twice the rate of any other fishery . When shrimp farming first became profitable in the 1970s, it was lauded by some as a ‘Blue Revolution’, a way to avoid the environmental havoc described above. However, rapid, unregulated expansion of intensive level fish farms earned farmed seafood a reputation of being unhygienic and environmentally destructive in its own ways. Low survival rates, disease outbreaks, concentrated waste effluent, and undesirable feed ingredients soon disillusioned environmentalist support . Over the decades though, aquaculture technology has evolved considerably, resulting in sustainable feed alternatives, the ability to reduce waste, and produce more efficient, cleaner products overall. At least in countries with effective regulation. The majority of our current imports come from penaeid shrimp farms in India, Indonesia, and Ecuador ; countries with less stringent health and environmental standards than those of the U.S. One way to meet the growing domestic demand for shrimp, as well as ensure environmental integrity, is to produce our own. Marine shrimp aquaculture exists in the United States, but import statistics show that domestic products constitute a negligible amount of our annual consumption. Researchers in the 1970s looked into various shrimp species for farming along the Pacific coast, but studies were abandoned as it proved far cheaper at the time to get products from abroad and shrimp farming became dominated by warm water species .

Currently, people are becoming more cognizant of the origins and environmental impacts of their food. A locally-farmed shrimp could reduce the environmental footprint of long-distance imports; provide a fresher product to the consumer; and reduce ecosystem damage resulting from farming and fishing practices in unregulated regions. Major concerns and opposition regarding fish and shellfish farming include the risk of escape and subsequent introduction of an invasive species or pathogens. The spot prawn is native to the North Pacific and to this point has never been utilized as a commercial aquaculture species. There is an active wild capture fishery for spot prawn in California, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Canada. The California fishery is most active between Santa Cruz and San Diego, averaging 250,000 pounds per year. Only pots are used, as trawling for spot prawn is prohibited in all state waters. The fishery is regarded as relatively sustainable due to its small, limited access , closure during peak spawning months, and the ban of trawling . However, California spot prawn earns only a “good alternative” score from Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch due to potential damage to seafloor habitats caused by the traps . Furthermore, no surveys are conducted to estimate or monitor population abundance, and the bycatch to target ratio was only monitored during the 2000-2001 season where it was found to be 1:1 in the south and 2:1 in the north . Stable catch, limited access, and gear restrictions may indicate a well-managed fishery, but in reality, much of the spot prawn population health is unknown. Live spot prawns can reach $24 per pound ex-vessel price and $30 per pound at markets due to their large size – sometimes six shrimp to a pound. In Japanese restaurants the large, cold-water shrimp is known as amaebi , a high-end sushi item. Stateside Asian marketplaces are the primary consumers for California spot prawn, while the bigger fisheries in Alaska and British Columbia export a significant percentage of their landings to Japan or global sushi markets . Farming P. platycerosis not a call to derail the wild-capture fishery, but a suggestion that supplementing this seasonal fishery with a farmed option may be a prudent way to support local industry and avoid increasing ecosystem stress or competition on the water. In 1970, Price and Chew of the University of Washington Fisheries Research Institute undertook the first laboratory rearing of P. platyceros. Until this study, the only descriptions of larval stages were drawn from plankton samples in the 1930s. The culmination of their study is the definitive morphological guide to spot prawn development through stage IX. Price & Chew caught ovigerous females in Washington and reared larvae from the females and from loose eggs that had detached during transport. Loose eggs were kept suspended on a screen in a unique recirculating system with 10µ-filtered, aerated, UV-sterilized saltwater. In this setting, eggs could last up to sixty days with no fungus growth. There is no comment as to when the detached eggs hatched in relation to the eggs carried by females, but both hatched successfully. It took females 7-10 days to release all of their progeny once hatching began.