CUTTING EDGE SUBMERGED FEEDING TECHNOLOGY IN OPEN OCEAN AQUACULTURE

Innovasea Systems Inc. delivers a wide array of equipment and services to the aquaculture industry. Offerings range from land-based hatchery/nursery technology, open ocean farming platforms, as well as offshore wireless instrumentation with data collection, and analysis. Innovasea supports its clients from concept to harvest.  With a staff of more than 200, some with 20+ years' experience, Innovasea has pioneered submerged aquaculture feeding; from single pens to entire pen grid systems.

Traditional air blown systems will not efficiently deliver feed to pens located 10-15 meters below the surface. For submerged feeding, pellets must be mixed in water then pumped efficiently to the selected pen and broadly dispersed in the grow-out volume at depth.  As the pens and fish are underwater, not visible to the farmer, a reliable and cost-effective camera system is needed.  This and its supporting software are necessary to produce a competitive FCR (Feed Conversion Ratio).  

Innovasea has developed the underwater feeding system to address these challenges and capitalize on the advantages of submerged feeding. Select advantages are, keeping stock below sea lice and harmful algal blooms, which typically inhabit the first few meters near the surface and fewer lost days of feeding due to inclement weather. The submerged feed pipe network is kept away from the destructive energy from vessels and buoys moving at the surface.  The underwater feeding System delivers feed via laminar water / feed mixture to a pen up to 400 meters away.  Once feed has arrived at the pen, the Helical Disperser evenly scatters the pellets which provides equal opportunity for feeding throughout the entire biomass population. A sophisticated monitoring system assists the feed manager to optimize the FCR.  Innovasea's cost effective submerged cameras transmit hi-resolution real-time video to both the operator on the vessel and the remote-control center.  The underwater vision system helps feed operators identify and quantify feed loss from other particles such as fecal matter.  Coupled with a fish appetite satiation index, the underwater vision system provides a powerful tool to help optimize FCR. Finally, Innovasea's Biomass Estimation platform collects and reports near real-time fish weight biomass after a few hours of data collection each week.  An accurate assessment of fish mass enables the operator to make informed decisions regarding scheduled feed amounts.