Posts Tagged ‘Aquapod’


Robotic Offshore Cages – The Future of Fish Farming?

November 24th, 2009 by Hayley
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.

Click here for more information on this topic.

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Posted by Hayley Tags: , ,
Posted in Environment, Fish Health, Innovation, Technology, Uncategorized | No Comments »


Aquaculture Power

January 26th, 2009 by Andrew

Resolute Marine Energy, Inc. of Watertown, Mass. has an ocean energy harvesting system, which makes use of a buoy undulating on the ocean’s surface to create a pumping action with an arm to a platform below.

Ocean Farm Technologies, Inc. of Searsmont, Maine, has developed a 64-foot, 3,600-cubic-meter cage made of polyethylene and wire mesh to grow fish deep in the ocean.

As finfish aquaculture moves into deeper ocean sites, it will need sustained, autonomous sources of power. AquaPod net pens are designed to be moored at a stationary, licensed site at a depth near 100 feet. The power system creates compressed air that could power auto-feed systems, lower the cage, or in the future, power propellers to move the cage from place to place.

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Posted by Andrew Tags: ,
Posted in Technology | 1 Comment »


Comparison of aquaculture cages

November 16th, 2008 by Andrew

There are a number of blogs on the finfish site regarding different aquaculture cage technologies. However, there was little information in the way of a comparison between the different technologies. I came across a presentation which provides some insight. The presentation provides an interesting comparison of some aquaculture cage products commonly used in North America. The aquaculture cages compared are:

 

  • SeaStation by OceanSpar, USA
  • Aquapod by Ocean Farm Technologies, USA
  • OceanGlobe by Byks AS, Norway
  • Ocean Drifter by MIT Sea Grant, USA

The presentation also considers some information on the economic viability of open ocean aquaculture of a number of important fish species. Finally, the economics of nearshore versus offshore aquaculture is considered.

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Posted by Andrew Tags: , , , , ,
Posted in Economics, Growout | 6 Comments »