to maintain the integrity of the cage. Damage would occur during a storm or heavy
seas, repairs would be made quickly if time allowed between weather events, and
then the next round of damage would occur. There were several thousand red drum
stocked into the cage which grew well and the feed unit used on the project
performed very well when the feed tube stayed attached as designed.
The project was ended abruptly and unexpectedly in 1999 when it was decided
the cage needed to be moved as soon as possible to make room for pipeline
construction in the area. Moving a large cage and moorings in the offshore GoM
waters is a daunting task in perfect conditions and an impossible one in marginal or
bad conditions. During this process the cage ended up entangled in the legs of a
platform, the net was compromised, and for all practical purposes that was the end
of the Seafish project. Several fish samples were taken along the way, but no
significant amounts were ever brought to shore or harvested during the two year
venture. A great deal was learned however in terms of what to expect and plan for
during installation, feeding, and maintenance of large cage culture systems in the
open GoM.
Though not directly utilizing a platform, there has also been one federally funded
effort to conduct offshore aquaculture research in the GoM. This research took place
from 2000–2003 and was initiated with the formation of the Offshore Aquaculture
Consortium (OAC) which was a collaborative, Gulf-wide research and development program tasked with gathering primary scientific data regarding offshore
aquaculture. The project site was in federal waters 40 km off the Mississippi coast
at a depth of 26 m and within a few hundred meters of an active platform whose
only involvement was for observation of the cage. The position of the OAC
investigators was one of specifically not using a platform in an effort to have an
autonomous cage system in the offshore Gulf waters. A commercially available Sea
Station™ 600 m
3 system was installed with a single point mooring whose efficacy,
ironically, was questioned at a workshop organized by the OAC in 2000. After
being deployed for 50 days a component of the mooring failed and the cage was
adrift for 40 days before being located and towed back to shore for repairs. The
cage was subsequently redeployed with a three point mooring system and although
fish were stocked into the system no significant amounts were harvested during
course of the research. Funding was discontinued and unfortunately what began as
an excellent opportunity for an offshore aquaculture demonstration project in the
GoM ended abruptly in 2003. A detailed description of the entire OAC project can
be found in the final report to NOAA (Bridger 2004).
13.4 The Future
Despite the challenging conditions, interest in offshore aquaculture production in
the Gulf of Mexico still exists. From a technology standpoint, new and improved
aquaculture systems are available that can survive and produce fish but the primary
question is can this be done profitably offshore? Thus far, in the GoM the answer to
386
J.B. Kaiser and M.D. Chambers
seas, repairs would be made quickly if time allowed between weather events, and
then the next round of damage would occur. There were several thousand red drum
stocked into the cage which grew well and the feed unit used on the project
performed very well when the feed tube stayed attached as designed.
The project was ended abruptly and unexpectedly in 1999 when it was decided
the cage needed to be moved as soon as possible to make room for pipeline
construction in the area. Moving a large cage and moorings in the offshore GoM
waters is a daunting task in perfect conditions and an impossible one in marginal or
bad conditions. During this process the cage ended up entangled in the legs of a
platform, the net was compromised, and for all practical purposes that was the end
of the Seafish project. Several fish samples were taken along the way, but no
significant amounts were ever brought to shore or harvested during the two year
venture. A great deal was learned however in terms of what to expect and plan for
during installation, feeding, and maintenance of large cage culture systems in the
open GoM.
Though not directly utilizing a platform, there has also been one federally funded
effort to conduct offshore aquaculture research in the GoM. This research took place
from 2000–2003 and was initiated with the formation of the Offshore Aquaculture
Consortium (OAC) which was a collaborative, Gulf-wide research and development program tasked with gathering primary scientific data regarding offshore
aquaculture. The project site was in federal waters 40 km off the Mississippi coast
at a depth of 26 m and within a few hundred meters of an active platform whose
only involvement was for observation of the cage. The position of the OAC
investigators was one of specifically not using a platform in an effort to have an
autonomous cage system in the offshore Gulf waters. A commercially available Sea
Station™ 600 m
3 system was installed with a single point mooring whose efficacy,
ironically, was questioned at a workshop organized by the OAC in 2000. After
being deployed for 50 days a component of the mooring failed and the cage was
adrift for 40 days before being located and towed back to shore for repairs. The
cage was subsequently redeployed with a three point mooring system and although
fish were stocked into the system no significant amounts were harvested during
course of the research. Funding was discontinued and unfortunately what began as
an excellent opportunity for an offshore aquaculture demonstration project in the
GoM ended abruptly in 2003. A detailed description of the entire OAC project can
be found in the final report to NOAA (Bridger 2004).
13.4 The Future
Despite the challenging conditions, interest in offshore aquaculture production in
the Gulf of Mexico still exists. From a technology standpoint, new and improved
aquaculture systems are available that can survive and produce fish but the primary
question is can this be done profitably offshore? Thus far, in the GoM the answer to
386
J.B. Kaiser and M.D. Chambers