Eco Factor: Submersible net pen for open ocean aquaculture made from recycled materials.
Based in Maine, Ocean Farm Technologies (OFT) is building two new pioneering projects in the deep waters off South Korea and Mexico, that will help the company relocate fish farms away from protected near shore sites. This new advancement has been made possible by OFTs specially engineering submersible net pen they call the Aquapod.
The Aquapod is made from hundreds of triangular panels made from recycled polyethylene, which are covered with steel mesh for strength required to tackle the currents in ocean. Having a volume of 3,625 cubic meters and a diameter of 20 meters, the Aquapods are located several kilometers from the shore in waters around 60m deep.
This relocation will help the companies operating these new aquaculture farms sustainable with a considerably lower environmental impact, while optimizing growing conditions. Managed by Okwang Fisheries Union in South Korea and Pesquera Delly in Sonora, Mexico, these new farms will be followed by more Aquapods, which will be delivered later this summer by OFT.
Via: FIS
June 14th, 2009 at 6:45 pm
While this technology is fascinating, it is far from green. There are still many concerns to be addressed – such as the cumulative impacts of growing thousands of tons of fish in a concentrated area releasing excess food and fish waste into the waters. See Food & Water Watch’s report Fishy Farms: The Problems with Open Ocean Aquaculture for our policy recommendations at http://bit.ly/tp6Uq
June 15th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Christina, unfortunately Food and Water Watch is a terrible reference for this subject and well known as the most fervant anti-aquaculture group around with a biased opinion and unbalanced reporting. Most respected NGO’s (WWF for example) have recognized aquaculture as a means to reduce fishing pressure on the seas while provided essential healthy food to a growing population and it must be embraced and collaborations must be formed to find the best ways to conduct it. The no, no, no attitude that Food and Water Watch has is deconstructive and does not offer solutions. Such references must be ignored and proactive attitudes and groups should be looked to instead or we will never solve these issues.
Open ocean aquaculture such as this uses strong currents and deep waters to distribute wastes in a manner which allows the environment to assimilate the waste materials. The few farms that use this technology have shown time and again that when stocking densities are kept to responsible levels no noticeable impact can be detected.