The availability of protected or semi protected waters for new net pen aquaculture installations is shrinking rapidly around the globe due to a number of factors. That has spurred significant growth in open ocean aquaculture, which requires robust infrastructure to farm fish safely and effectively in tough conditions offshore. A result of this growth is an increasing appetite for equipment designed to operate in the many locations around the globe that fall between protected sites and high-energy offshore environments.
A significant portion of our oceans have relatively mild conditions for most of the year but are plagued by occasional extreme events (e.g., hurricanes, cyclones, and typhoons) or short seasonal weather volatility. In these locations standard, surface-oriented operations can be run during the calmer times of year. But farm operators need the ability to protect their fish stocks and infrastructure when severe conditions are encountered. The ideal way to do this is with subsea infrastructure and with pens that are easily submersible. Innovasea calls this “duck-and-cover” fish farming and has been designing and building the equipment for it for the past five years.
In this talk we’ll discuss the reasoning and benefits behind subsea and duck-and-cover aquaculture. The discussion will also touch on Innovasea’s new SeaProtean pen, an affordable easy-to-submerge pen that was designed specifically for duck-and-cover sites.