14.3 What Still Needs to Be Learned
14.3.1 Technologies and O&M
The installation of aquaculture devices offshore, either in close proximity to or
direct attachment to the offshore wind farm or oil rig, needs as a first step a full
complement of oceanographic, environmental and site-specific data set as well as a
full understanding of the water motions on the farm structure as well as its associated candidates. To avoid the major stress on the installation induced by storm
conditions the aquaculture installations should be submergible. That means that a
significant part of the entire culture unit is located beneath the surface and/or in
direct contact to the multi-use platform, while the bulk of the structure’s mass is
mounted below the surface to allow buoyancy and stabilization. This mooring
component should be below the zone of turbulence and wave action (Starchild
1980). None of these technologies and system designs are available on the market,
nor are they currently in development.
Depending on the species and culture designs, more insight into the operation
and maintenance including deployment and harvest by taking local site-specific
criteria into account. As none of these multi-use devices currently exist or are only
on pilot scale, O&M strategies cannot be developed except theoretically (see
Chap. 4). To get more insight into this emerging issue, large-scale multi-use platforms have to be installed (see Sect. 14.5.1 below).
For some uses such as aquaculture, floating platforms already exist. However,
for other uses such as wind farms and service platforms the floating design is in
development. The combination of floating platforms in a multi-use concept is a new
challenge and still in its initial stages (e.g. wind farm and desalination = Stefanakou
et al. 2016; wind farms and aquaculture = TROPOS 2016; MERMAID 2016).
14.3.2 Environmental Impacts
As already mentioned above, volumes of information on risks from any type of
aquaculture on the local ecosystem in the nearshore and offshore realm are available. However, potential risks originating from a combination of uses following the
co-use concept is not known, especially when it comes to potential cumulative
effects from wind energy turbines or oil rigs in association with aquaculture.
The compilation of Beiersdorf and Wollny-Goerke (2014) provides information on
ecological impacts resulting from offshore wind energy installations on the seabed
and its associated organisms (Gutow et al. 2014). In addition, information on
potential impacts on the pelagic habitat including invertebrates, ichthyofauna
(Krägefsky 2014) and mammals (Dähne et al. 2014; Skov et al. 2014) as well as on
avifauna and bat fauna (Damian and Merck 2014; Hill et al. 2014; Mendel et al.
14 Epilogue—Pathways Towards Sustainable Ocean Food Production
397
14.3.1 Technologies and O&M
The installation of aquaculture devices offshore, either in close proximity to or
direct attachment to the offshore wind farm or oil rig, needs as a first step a full
complement of oceanographic, environmental and site-specific data set as well as a
full understanding of the water motions on the farm structure as well as its associated candidates. To avoid the major stress on the installation induced by storm
conditions the aquaculture installations should be submergible. That means that a
significant part of the entire culture unit is located beneath the surface and/or in
direct contact to the multi-use platform, while the bulk of the structure’s mass is
mounted below the surface to allow buoyancy and stabilization. This mooring
component should be below the zone of turbulence and wave action (Starchild
1980). None of these technologies and system designs are available on the market,
nor are they currently in development.
Depending on the species and culture designs, more insight into the operation
and maintenance including deployment and harvest by taking local site-specific
criteria into account. As none of these multi-use devices currently exist or are only
on pilot scale, O&M strategies cannot be developed except theoretically (see
Chap. 4). To get more insight into this emerging issue, large-scale multi-use platforms have to be installed (see Sect. 14.5.1 below).
For some uses such as aquaculture, floating platforms already exist. However,
for other uses such as wind farms and service platforms the floating design is in
development. The combination of floating platforms in a multi-use concept is a new
challenge and still in its initial stages (e.g. wind farm and desalination = Stefanakou
et al. 2016; wind farms and aquaculture = TROPOS 2016; MERMAID 2016).
14.3.2 Environmental Impacts
As already mentioned above, volumes of information on risks from any type of
aquaculture on the local ecosystem in the nearshore and offshore realm are available. However, potential risks originating from a combination of uses following the
co-use concept is not known, especially when it comes to potential cumulative
effects from wind energy turbines or oil rigs in association with aquaculture.
The compilation of Beiersdorf and Wollny-Goerke (2014) provides information on
ecological impacts resulting from offshore wind energy installations on the seabed
and its associated organisms (Gutow et al. 2014). In addition, information on
potential impacts on the pelagic habitat including invertebrates, ichthyofauna
(Krägefsky 2014) and mammals (Dähne et al. 2014; Skov et al. 2014) as well as on
avifauna and bat fauna (Damian and Merck 2014; Hill et al. 2014; Mendel et al.
14 Epilogue—Pathways Towards Sustainable Ocean Food Production
397