ESCANABA – About 75 percent of the fish processing equipment manufactured at Pisces Fish Machinery in Escanaba is exported to other countries. Matt Wastell says recent shipments include Sicily, Argentina and Greece.

Pisces was named Business of the year by the Delta Chamber of Commerce.

Wastell says business has been good because of an interest in fish as a health food.

“It seems like everybody is trying to get a little healthier and there’s a big push to eat fish. We only need fish consumption to increase slightly in the U.S. or the world and it would be very tough to keep up with supply. So we think the growth of the health trend is excellent,” he said.

There are only a few companies in the world that manufacture a machine that processes fish. Wastell said their equipment automatically cleans and filets fish.

You take a whole fish and you put it through a series of machines that takes the heads off and then removes the guts with a machine. If it’s a Salmon, then you put it in a filet machine and you get two sides that come out of the machine. It’s definitely better than what most people can do by hand,” said Wastell.

Piceses is also currently teaming up with the Delta County Economic Development Alliance and Hannahville Indian community to develop aquaculture in the area for companies to be able to grow fish for market.