Robotic Offshore Cages – The Future of Fish Farming?

Aquapod© (Source: Ocean Farm Technologies)

Aquapod™ (Source: Ocean Farm Technologies, Inc.)

Sometime ago we posted about heading towards automation self propelled aquaculture cages. Since then, Cliff Goudey, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Offshore Aquaculture Engineering Center, has been working on a project funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which is testing these cages with cobia farming operations in Puerto Rico.

Goudey has equipped an Aquapod™ cage, produced by Maine-based Ocean Farm Technologies, Inc., with a set of propellers, which act as big screws that churn their way through the ocean.

Self Propelled Cage (Source: www.wickedlocal.com)

Self Propelled Cage (Source: www.wickedlocal.com)

Goudey’s technology gives fish farmers a way to rotate cage locations without towing cages behind boats. The cages become mobile fish farms, making ocean depth less of an issue and fouled water quality and low dissolved oxygen content less of a threat by transferring the fish to areas of the ocean never before accessible to fish farming.

Working recently at Snapperfarm Inc., the cobia operation in Puerto Rico, Goudey’s cage has proved itself capable of moving on its own.

For footage of the sea trials in action click here to watch a video.

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