Open Ocean Aquaculture

The potential of Ocean Aquaculture is huge, almost unlimited... However, turning this potential into reality raises many questions, concerns and difficulties as shown by those informations found in Internet.

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As stated by a Congressional Research Service's report for US Congress, Open ocean aquaculture is broadly defined as the rearing of marine organisms in exposed areas beyond significant coastal influence. Open ocean aquaculture employs less control over organisms and the surrounding environment than do inshore and land-based aquaculture, which are often undertaken in enclosures, such as ponds [7]. The CRS report provides many interesting insides and discusses four general areas: (1) operational and business-related challenges; (2) potential economic impacts; (3) potential environmental impacts; and (4) the legal and regulatory environment [7].

Criticism
Opponents to Open Ocean Aquaculture raise many concerns among which [6] [21] [22] [23]:

1. Pollution from wastes such as particulate matter from fecal material and uneaten food, nutrients, and chemicals and drugs, such as pesticides, disinfectants, and antibiotics.
2. Negative impacts on wild populations of fish through escapes of farmed fish and transfer of disease and parasites, as well as negative impacts on other wildlife through entanglements and harassment.
3. Dependence on wild fisheries for feed inputs. Between 1995 and 2007, the volume of total production of fish has been multiplied by three. Consequence: Aquaculture represents 88% of global consumption of fish oil and 68% of fish meal products, often from endangered species such as anchovies or sardines, according to a new article by Rosamond Naylor and colleagues. But is it better to turn to non-carnivorous species such as carp or tilapia? Initially regarded as more environmentally friendly, the vegetarian fish farms now have a more ambiguous status, as since the 90's, fish meal is added to the feeds of these species. Result, in 2007 farmed carp and tilapia consumed more than one and a half times the amount of flour used by the farming of salmon and shrimp [19].
   
4. Privatization of the oceans and negative interactions with other stakeholders.
   

Projects

• Open Blue Sea Farms

They announced an agreement to acquire the major assets of Pristine Oceans, forming the world’s largest open ocean aquaculture operation by year-end. Since August 1, 2009, Open Blue has managed Pristine. It will consolidate assets into its own ocean sites. Both firms farm cobia in Panama because of the fish’s rapid growth rate, nutrition, rare taste and texture. Of the 43,000 stocked cobia, 10,000 are destined for the gourmet seafood market between December and April. Open Blue seeks an investment of $7M for further growth [13].

• Aquaculture in the Gulf of Mexico

When aquaculture operations are located beyond coastal state jurisdiction, within the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ, generally 3 to 200 nautical miles from shore), they are regulated primarily by federal agencies. Thus far, only a few aquaculture research facilities have operated in the US EEZ [7]. In 2009, President Barack Obama's administration announced it would develop federal aquaculture regulations (available for download here), including a system that could permit offshore fish farming in the ocean waters for the first time [8], [16].
This caused many protests from opponents, which strategy is to block such offshore ventures until Congress creates a system to regulate them [10]. As a result of many letters being sent to state representatives, [9] reports that Rep. Mazie Hirono had decided to co-sponsor the “Offshore Aquaculture is not Fishing Act of 2009″. The bill asserts that under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the Secretary of Commerce, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and regional fishery management councils do not have the authority to permit or regulate the commercial ocean fish farming industry, because it is not fishing [9]. The measure would invalidate existing permits and put future proposals for offshore fish farming on hold until Congress passes new legislation to oversee deepwater aquaculture [10]. Officials say it could be years before the farms get up and running in the Gulf, and that they will have to meet the regulations that have yet to be drawn up [20].
However, indirect approval of the farms came by default on September 3, 2009 when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) declined to take action on the fish farming plan the Gulf of Mexico Fisheries Management Council approved in January. In a press release, NOAA announced it let the plan go into effect because there are no nationwide federal aquaculture standards [18]. The US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration announced its intention to develop a comprehensive national policy for sustainable marine aquaculture in the coming months, providing a framework for addressing aquaculture activity in federal waters. The national policy also provides context for the Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for Regulating Offshore Aquaculture in the Gulf of Mexico, which recently took effect by default because NOAA chose to not respond to the plan submitted by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council within the allotted period [14]. The Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, which regulates fishing in federal waters from Texas to the west coast of Florida, proposed the plan for fish farms in January. Opponents, who called the agency's approval of fish farms in the Gulf "a dangerous precedent", believe that farming fish in the open waters will lead to pollution and threaten wild marine stocks. But proponents say offshore aquaculture is a safe way to produce high-quality seafood for Americans and ease the country's reliance on imported seafood [15]. Glen Brooks of Cortez, the president of the Gulf Fishermen's Association, said that fishermen have mixed feelings about raising fish offshore. "It's split 50/50," Brooks said. "Some of them look at it like an opportunity for new jobs, some of them feel like they don't want the competition" [16]. "I don't think this decision today has really clarified anything except that Congress needs to act, and act soon," said George Leonard, an aquaculture specialist with the Ocean Conservancy. "We need congressional action; we need a national debate about this" [17].

Technologies

• Aquapods

The National Geographic produced a video on Responsible Marine Aquaculture, featuring Aquapods [11]. The patented Aquapod™ is a containment system, suited for rough open ocean conditions and a diversity of species. The Aquapod is constructed of individual triangle net panels fastened together in a spheroid shape.

Most Aquapod net panels are made of reinforced high density polyethylene with 80% recycled content and covered with coated galvanized steel wire mesh netting. Individual net panels or groups of panels are modified to accommodate other functions, such as access, feeding, fish transfer, grading, and harvesting. The Aquapod functions as a secure containment system for finfish while submerged or partially surfaced. According to the manufacturer website [12], the Aquapods have the following features:

1. Submersion: The Aquapod can be operated partially surfaced for ease of operations or fully submerged for storm and collision safety. Near neutral buoyancy of structural materials makes vertical positioning easy.
2. Fixed Volume: The Aquapod maintains its shape and volume in strong currents or under tow. Aquapod net pens are available in sizes from 115 cubic meters (8 m diameter) to 11,000 cubic meters (28 m diameter).
3. Modularity: The modular nature of the Aquapod containment system allows easy inspection for net inventory control, containment quality control, and best management systems for marine net pens. Maintenance is very efficient and requires little or no diving time.
4. Predator Control: We use tensioned vinyl coated galvanized steel wire mesh for containment netting, guaranteeing superior predator control in areas where losses have made fish farming difficult.
5. Feeding: One or more panels in each Aquapod net pen is modified to receive and distribute hydraulically supplied feed from a centralized feed barge or boat. The rigid exoskeleton of the Aquapod allows easy attachment of any number of feeding ports and secures feed pipe installations at any location on the exterior of the pen.
6. Safety: The ability of the Aquapod to rotate within its mooring grid, bringing any segment of the pen to the surface or near to the surface, greatly reduces the amount and depth of diving needed to operate the pen and greatly facilitates cleaning.

• Micropods for artisanal aquaculture

Development of open ocean aquaculture has created opportunities to transfer and apply new technologies to established production methods. While commercial scale open ocean aquaculture operations are capital intensive and not realistic for the average family farmer, a strong argument can be made for the feasibility of using small submersible net pens designed for exposed conditions in artisanal applications by apply in low volume high density (LVHD) production methods. Two such examples of this equipment are the OCAT pen designed by the United Soy Board and Micropods engineered and produced by Ocean Farm Technologies, Inc [26].

• Floating cages

Cliff Goudey, director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Offshore Aquaculture Engineering Center, is building cages that can move under their own power. An Aquapod cage, produced by Maine-based Ocean Farm Technologies, si equipped with a pair of 2.4 meter diameter propellers, which can be steered easily by controllers on a boat. Aquapods are composed of triangular panels covered with vinyl-coated, galvanized steel netting and come in sizes from 8 to 28 meters in diameter. They might be turned loose to mimic natural systems by following carefully chosen ocean currents. Cages might even generate their own electricity by harnessing solar energy, wave energy, or other forms of renewable power. Goudey currently uses a small boat to carry a generator that powers the cage's propulsion, but the power source could easily be made smaller and placed in a buoy for more automated operation [1].

• Cages that could actually coax fish to catch themselves

Scott Lindell of the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory installed half of an Aquapod sphere, an "Aquadome," on the floor of Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. Some 4200 hundred-gram black sea bass were placed in the cage and trained over five weeks to gather whenever a "dinner bell" sound was played through a speaker. Previously, aquarium-based tests had proven that the fish not only associated the sound with food, they also remembered that association for up to four weeks. Later, with the seafloor dome left open, the fish became "free range" animals. They could hide and forage in nearby natural habitat, but they still returned to the cage after the dinner bell had rung. Trouble soon arrived, however, in the form of schooling 3.6 to 5.4 kilogram bluefish. The voracious predators quickly discovered the dome and circled it day and night to feast on Lindell's subjects [1]. But the underwater massacre has not put Mr Lindell off. He explains: "It is the same problem that sheep farmers have - if you don't have fencing, then they need to have some kind of protection against predators. So with sheep, people have sheep dogs. We need to find the equivalent in terms of what would protect our 'herd of fish' if they were not protected by the confines of the cage". Robotic fish research could help with the fish ranching experiments and a shark might just be the answer, he says. Something like mako shark that has a taste for bluefish. He says: "I can't imagine us training a mako shark the way you would train a killer whale. "But it could be as simple as having a fibreglass, mako shark look-alike that is mechanically driven, that could swim around and around the cage, keeping the bluefish away" [25].

• Submerged cages

The fish farms could consist of pens connected to manmade structures, such as oil or gas platforms, experts say. The cage-like pens could be raised or lowered as needed for fish growth or dictated by the weather. Food stored on the platforms could be delivered to the pens through tubes [24].

Hurricanes, which have sheered off oil rigs and pipes in the Gulf of Mexico, are another concern, even if the pens can be lowered beneath the surface. Cynthia Sarthou, executive director of the environmental group Gulf Restoration Network, said she worries about what escaped fish could do to the ecosystem. “I’m not sufficiently trusting that these cages can withstand a Category 4 or 5 hurricane,” she said. “We saw what happened to the oil rigs” [24].

Debate

• Energy sources

The company Resolute Marine Energy has developed a system called Airwec, that produces energy with waves and buoys. The market targeted by the company is that of open ocean aquaculture, that should have a strong development in the future [5].

• Carbon sink ?

Fertilizing oceans could stimulate plankton bloom and enhance biological productivity, which could benefit the marine food chain and sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere [2]. However, studies consider iron fertilizing [7] and little, if any, is known about the effect of an organic fertilization.

• Fish escapes

One of the Norwegian-owned giants of B.C.'s aquaculture industry has disclosed that approximately 40,000 Atlantic salmon escaped from one of its open-net fish farms on October 21. Marine Harvest Canada issued a news release saying the official number of escapees from its Port Elizabeth site will not be known until an official recount next week. The fish weighed an average of 4.7 kilogams and were ready to be harvested. The company announced that scuba divers discovered several holes in two pens at the site, which is in the Broughton Archipelago. Another Norwegian-owned operator, Grieg Seafoods, lost more than 132,000 fish in an escape earlier this year, and that the Norwegian government recently reported a 380-percent increase in escapes from open-net fish farms over this time last year [27].

REFERENCES
[1] http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/08/090818-giant-robotic-fish-farms.html (consulted on August 19, 2009)
[2] http://marine.rutgers.edu/ebme/html_docs/reprints/RavenFalko_1999_PlantCellEnviron_22_741-755.pdf (consulted on August 19, 2009)
[4] http://www.seattlepi.com/local/260433_kampachi22.html (consulted on August 24, 2009)
[5] http://energiesdelamer.blogspot.com/2009/08/resolute-marine-energy-vise-la.html (consulted on August 20, 2009)
[6] http://www.seaweb.org/resources/aquaculturecenter/documents/Aquaculture.Offshore.pdf (consulted on August 25, 2009)
[7] http://www.nationalaglawcenter.org/assets/crs/RL32694.pdf (consulted on August 25, 2009)
[8] http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2009/04/23/23greenwire-obama-admin-hands-offshore-aquaculture-oversig-10648.html (consulted on August 25, 2009)
[9] http://kahea.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/offshore-aquaculture-is-not-fishing-act-of-2009/ (consulted on August 25, 2009)
[10] http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fish-farming-deepwater-offshore-regulation (consulted on August 25, 2009)
[11] http://aquaculturetoday.blogspot.com/2009/07/national-geographic-responsible-marine.html (consulted on August 28, 2009)
[12] http://oceanfarmtech.com/aquapod.htm (consulted on August 28, 2009)
[13] http://eon.businesswire.com/portal/site/eon/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090831005203&newsLang=en (consulted on August 31, 2009)
[14] http://www.fishnewseu.com/latest-news/world/1823-noaa-allows-aquaculture-plan-for-gulf-of-mexico-and-commits-to-marine-aquaculture-policy.html (consulted on September 4, 2009)
[15] http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90852/6748269.html (consulted on September 4, 2009)
[16] http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090904/ARTICLE/909041052/2055/NEWS?Title=Fish-farms-in-Gulf-get-OK (consulted on September 4, 2009)
[17] http://www.nola.com/business/t-p/index.ssf?/base/money-2/1252042291132810.xml&coll=1 (consulted on September 4, 2009)
[18] http://keysnews.com/node/16593
[19] http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/actualites/sciences/nature/20090908.OBS0457/laquaculture_pompe_les_ressources_marines.html?idfx=RSS_sciences&xtor=RSS-29 (consulted on September 9, 2009)
[20] http://www.pnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009909110312 (consulted on September 17, 2009)
[21] http://www.hawaii247.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/AquacultureGraphic.jpg (consulted on September 17, 2009)
[22] http://www.oceanconservancy.org/site/News2?abbr=press_&page=NewsArticle&id=13487 (consulted on September 17, 2009)
[23] http://www.care2.com/greenliving/12-problems-with-ocean-fish-farming.html (consulted on September 17, 2009)
[24] http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/suburban/63465827.html (consulted on October 4, 2009)
[25] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8283701.stm (consulted on October 5, 2009)
[26] http://www.enaca.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=1851 (consulted on October 5, 2009)
[27] http://www.straight.com/article-266049/tens-thousands-atlantic-salmon-escape-broughton-archipelago-fish-farm (consulted on October 30, 2009)