Offshore aquaculture structures located in the Gulf of Maine are perceived to pose some risk to the critically endangered North Atlantic Right Whale, thereby making permits for such systems effectively unattainable. University of New Hampshire, in collaboration with Otherlab and Trophic LLC seeks to develop whale safe mooring and kelp cultivation technology. By replacing synthetic fiber ropes with composite materials, such as fiberglass rods, we believe that the chances of marine mammal entanglement can be significantly reduced, if not eliminated. Because they have rigidity and a minimum bending radius beyond which they break, composite lines cannot loop around whale appendages; the line would break or loosen before the formation of a wrap. Our project aims to demonstrate this technology in the context of a multi-tile kelp cultivation array fully exposed to the harsh winter conditions characteristic of the Gulf of Maine.
Project goals include evaluation of the technology as an entanglement prevention measure, development of operational and technological methods for enabling practical use of composite materials as structural or grow-lines in macroalgae aquaculture, and assessment of the durability of composite materials used as submerged load-bearing lines. We have designed and tested devices for terminating our composite lines, allowing for use as tension members. We have successfully deployed these lines as mooring and grow-lines on pilot scale kelp farms in the Gulf of Maine. And finally, we are continuing to evaluate changes in the mechanical properties of these materials after use on kelp cultivation systems.