An MIT researcher said that the test of a self-propelling underwater cage proved that it not only cut costs for offshore ocean-based fish farms but also aid the movement of such operations into the high seas, avoiding the user conflicts and compromised water quality of coastal zones. It is fact that fish farms account for more than half of the seafood produced globally. It is also fact that very little of that comes from ocean-based farms.
Traditional offshore fish farming have cages routinely repositioned to control disease. Stout towboats haul the enormous cages to another site, and both the cage size and typical propulsive inefficiency of boats make such movements very energy-intensive events. Cliff Goudey, director of MIT Sea Grant’s Offshore Aquaculture Engineering Center, is exploring a different approach to moving the cages.
Recently Goudey tested the approach at Snapperfarm Inc., an offshore fish farm in Culebra, Puerto Rico, that grows cobia in submerged cages. He told that these tests demonstrate that the concept of mobile cage operations is technically feasible. The project is funded by NOAA’s Marine Aquaculture Program, aimed at demonstrating the technology needed to raise fish in the vast portions of the oceans that are too deep for conventional anchored fish cages.
Steve Page, CEO of Ocean Farm Technologies, developer of the Aquapod, informed that the [propellers] is very high, he urged to use them to help with future installations. There is also a growing demand for self-propelled harvest pens that may be a great market for this technology. Brian O’Hanlon, founder of Snapperfarm, explained that self-propelled cage is impressive with the power and efficiency. He added that this technology having a broad range of applications in mariculture and other marine industries.
