Kona Coast Shellfish, LLC is a shellfish hatchery company created in 2006 as a joint venture between Coast Seafoods Company and Penn Cove Shellfish LLC.

The new hatchery was constructed in 2007 near Kona on the big island of Hawaii at Keahole Point, adjacent to the Kona airport at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority (NELHA) for the production of Pacific Oysters and Manila Clam larvae and seed.

Penn Cove Shellfish sold their interest in Kona Coast Shellfish to their partners at Coast Seafoods January, 2012.

There were several reasons for siting this new hatchery at NELHA:

• First, was to take advantage of the abundant sunshine necessary to grow the micro algae diet required to feed larvae and juvenile shellfish.
• Second, was to be able to utilize the cold, nutrient rich, deep seawater and warm surface seawater already available at the NELHA facility.
• Third was to have a hatchery geographically remote from the hatchery presently operated by Coast Seafoods in Quilcene, Washington.

The new shellfish hatchery presently produces Pacific Oysters and Manila Clam seed for supplying shellfish farms of joint venture owners as well as many allied growers from Mexico to Alaska.