Port McNeill, British Columbia, CANADAFor centuries, perhaps millennia, the Namgis First Nation fished a wide and glassy river that barrels into the straits separating Vancouver Island from mainland Canada. According to legend, sockeye salmon were so plentiful that the Namgis could simply redirect the river and trap seemingly endless runs of fish in ponds outside their homes.

Today, sockeye have all but disappeared from the Nimpkish. But a stone's throw away, a warehouse brims with hundreds of thousands of Atlantic salmon. The fish crowd into pools the color of jade, swim against a steady current, eat pellets that rain down from metal pipes above, and grow plump.

This $7.6 million (U.S.) warehouse is called Kuterra. Owned by the Namgis, it is one of the few