Snapperfarm operates an open ocean aquaculture facility off Puerto Rico where it is growing cobia.
In mid 2002, Snapperfarm installed its first cages. Snapperfarm currently utilizes SeaStation™and Aquapod™ offshore submersible cages with a combined capacity of 3,000 cubic meters.
Because of the strong currents, extreme wave energy and exposure to hurricanes, the cages are operated fully submerged and are only surfaced for maintenance or harvest.
The decision was made to focus efforts exclusively on Culebran Cobia™ (Rachycentron canadum) due to the excellent traits for aquaculture exhibited in early trials.
Substantial improvements to the growth efficiency of Culebran Cobia™ and operational efficiency of the submerged open ocean operation have been made since 2002.
Working with JC Seafood, Inc. in Miami, Florida, Snapperfarm has successfully introduced Culebran Cobia™ to health and environmentally conscious markets in the U.S.
If you would like to gain a cobia’s eye view of the Snapperfarm cages in operation you can view a 3 minute video showing aspects of their aquaculture operations here.
What price does diesel need to reach before Recirculating Aquaculture Systems become the preferred approach compared to growing fish in cages moored in the open ocean?
Common wisdom is that the only viable future option for producing large volumes of fish is through open ocean aquaculture in large sea cages.
However, the recent increase in fuel prices may cause a major shift in economics that leads to a fundamental rethinking of this assumption.
Lets think through and compare the features of recirculating aquaculture systems with the open ocen aquaculture to help provide a focus for our consideration.
First, lets identify what we are talking about. Recirculating Aquaculture Systems or RAS uses one or more indoor tanks within a controllable rearing environment to grow fish.
Recirculating systems seek to offer the fish a clean growth environment by filtering and cleaning the water for recycling back through the tanks. Typically RAS systems stock fish at high densities as a means of enhancing the economics due to the expectation of a higher capital cost required to establish a recirculating aquaculture operation compared to ponds or cages in existing waterways.
The features of Recirculating Aquaculture systems potentially include:
- minimise water requirements
- minimise land requirements
- minimise variability
- control water temperature
- species selection enabled
- independent of weather
- control water quality
- minimise transport costs
- year round production
- optimise harvest to meet market conditions
Therefore, potentially we are comparing scenarios like:
- an open ocean aquaculture facility in a clean environment but due to increased environmental constraints operating further from shore requiring a round trip by boat over some kilometres each day to service the maintenance and upkeep needs of the operation. Processing may be conducted some distance from market and then transported to wholesaler requiring flights and trucking for delivery
with one like this
- a recirculating aquaculture system located within a large city market operating from a repurposed industrial site producing fish just in time to meet demand from the fish marketers headquartered in the next suburb.
Can you help me to identify the key issues that we must consider in contructing an economic model?
Are there already economic models that exist that can help us to balance the pros and cons of each scenario?
There is one paper on RAS available for download here, but it is not comparative and does not treat the transport issues. Is anyone aware of any work that is more recent?
Perhaps such models already exist for chicken and or pork producers?
Any leads, opinions, insights or suggestions gratefully received.
