AQUA 2024

August 26 - 30, 2024

Copenhagen, Denmark

AN OVERVIEW OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE’S OFFSHORE AQUACULTURE ACTIVITIES IN THE GULF OF MAINE, USA

Michael D. Chambers*, David W. Fredriksson, Long huan Zhu,  Michael Coogan, Michael Doherty,  Erich Berghahn and  Igor  Tsukrov.

Center for Sustainable Seafood Systems

School of Marine Science and Ocean Engineering

University of New Hampshire

Durham, NH 03824

MICHAEL.CHAMBERS@UNH.EDU



The University of New Hampshire (UNH) has a rich history developing and evaluating offshore farming systems ,  culturing marine finfish, shellfish and macroalgae species and working with industry. They have established world class facilities including the Jere Chase Ocean Engineering Lab (https://marine.unh.edu/facility/judd-gregg-marine-research-complex ). They maintain six, fully permitted aquaculture farms including a  53-ha site located 4.4 km offshore Rye Harbor, NH in 35 m water depth. This site is totally exposed to Northeast storms with seas over 9 m in height and currents up to 0.65 m/sec.

Recent research at UNH has focused on  1. integrated multi-trophic aquaculture of steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) and sugar kelp (Saccharina latissima) , Fig. 1 . This system is used for aquaculture education, training and research,  2.  Whale friendly kelp farming systems that reduce the risk of entanglement, and 3. sea scallop  aquaculture  in  bottom condos (Placopecten magellanicus). These three research areas will be presented.