The advancement of marine farming in the United States is mainly limited by an ill-defined and inconsistent regulatory process as well as competition for space by other uses of coastal and offshore areas . One solution might be to evaluate areas originally set aside for energy development for the potential for reassignment to marine farming. As numerous offshore energy platforms become decommissioned because the energy reserves they collected are expended, the remaining offshore infrastructure could be an invaluable, and otherwise unaffordable, resource for marine farming.
An offshore energy platform located miles from shore is an ideal environment for conducting mariculture operations. Unlike shore-based or coastal facilities, the offshore location can offer excellent water quality to promote fish and shellfish health and provide the added benefits of ocean depth and current, which eliminate environmental impacts through the diffusion of organic wastes. Further, platforms in deeper water could afford the opportunity of providing a range of temperatures by drawing water from above and below thermoclines thereby providing an energy efficient and low carbon environmental control over culture conditions. Platforms also provide infrastructure and services for research, including available deck space, utilities and daily access by supply boats.
The shore-based infrastructure developed in support of the offshore energy industry could be re-tasked or otherwise co-located to support a new farming industry. Boats that used to deliver personnel and supplies to offshore platforms could also deliver farm personnel and supplies, like feed, to farming operations and to delivering harvested product to shore-side processing and distribution centers. Further, since the space under and around existing platforms are largely restricted from other uses, like commercial fishing, the transfer of those areas to marine farming would not represent a net loss to other user groups. Also, the proximity of energy platforms to populated areas would allow for the ready delivery of locally grown product to ample seafood markets and their distribution networks.
The need to expand marine farming in the near-shore and offshore environments of the United States is well understood. Many of the inherent regulatory and infrastructure limitations could be overcome by the adoption of policies that would allow the use of decommissioned offshore energy infrastructure to marine farming.