A Virginia company has acquired majority ownership of a Southern West Virginia fish farm, and it has announced it is switching the fish from arctic char to salmon and trout.

The West Virginia spring water at the farm runs from an old coal mine. It will allow them to farm pollutant-free salmon with minimal impact to the environment, according to Blue Ridge Aquaculture.

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Blue Ridge Aquaculture, based in Martinsville, Va., plans to replace arctic char (above), a fish native to the Yukon, with salmon and trout.

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"We hope to use the employees there," said Jim Franklin, vice president of Blue Ridge Aquaculture, in a telephone interview.

The fish farm had been named West Virginia Aqua LLC. That corporation, started by three coal-related companies - W.W. McDonald Land Co., Dingess Rum Properties and International Industries - lists coal operator Gary White as its organizer in state corporate filings.

The corporation had been selling arctic char since 2002. In recent years, Kroger and other supermarket chains had carried West Virginia-grown arctic char.

The char was grown in a closed system of indoor tanks, which officials said kept pollutants from getting into the fish or out to the environment.

A Virginia company has acquired majority ownership of a Southern West Virginia fish farm, and it has announced it is switching the fish from arctic char to salmon and trout.

The West Virginia spring water at the farm runs from an old coal mine. It will allow them to farm pollutant-free salmon with minimal impact to the environment, according to Blue Ridge Aquaculture.

The Martinsville, Va., corporation - home of the largest indoor tilapia farm in the United States - listed the West Virginia farm as one of its operations on its Web site late last week. A company statement said it "will continue operations at its current facilities to take advantage of its unique location and experienced work force."

"We hope to use the employees there," said Jim Franklin, vice president of Blue Ridge Aquaculture, in a telephone interview.

The fish farm had been named West Virginia Aqua LLC. That corporation, started by three coal-related companies - W.W. McDonald Land Co., Dingess Rum Properties and International Industries - lists coal operator Gary White as its organizer in state corporate filings.

The corporation had been selling arctic char since 2002. In recent years, Kroger and other supermarket chains had carried West Virginia-grown arctic char.

The char was grown in a closed system of indoor tanks, which officials said kept pollutants from getting into the fish or out to the environment.

Blue Ridge Aquaculture has been growing tilapia in a similar fashion since 1993. It raises nearly 4 million pounds of tilapia each year, shipping 75,000 pounds a week to live markets in New York, Boston and other cities, according to the corporation.

Recently, Blue Ridge Aquaculture has gotten into raising shrimp and saltwater cobia indoors, in conjunction with a nationwide research project based at Virginia Tech that aims to make the U.S. competitive with Asian countries, which control 80 percent of the U.S. shrimp market.

Blue Ridge Aquaculture's shrimp farm uses a process developed by a Maine firm to raise saltwater fish in low-salt water.

That same process will be used for the West Virginia salmon, Franklin said.

Although experts say wild-caught Pacific salmon and wild American shrimp are OK, farmed salmon and shrimp have been found to have elevated levels of PCBs, other chemical pollutants or drugs used to keep down diseases and parasites.

"We think it is [cleaner]," Franklin said of Blue Ridge Aquaculture's system. "We control all inputs into the system. We don't use any antibiotics. There's no mercury contamination issues to worry about, no PCBs. Everything we've grown, we've done tests in the past - there's no detectable limits" of pollutants, he said.

"It's a much healthier product for the consumer."

To contact staff writer Tara Tuckwiller, use e-mail or call 348-5189.