The scallop farming industry in the US is poised to be a high-value and high-growth industry, but requires the development of tools and techniques that enable cost-effective cultivation systems.
Kelson Marine, the University of Maine, and Vertical Bay are developing engineering tools that can aid scallop farmers in designing resilient farm infrastructure.
Complex, dynamic, ocean-based systems, such as scallop farms, demand rigorous engineering evaluations to mitigate risk of structural failures. Additionally, an accurate understanding of the system’s operational requirements and behavior in extreme ocean conditions can help identify cost minimization strategies.
Structurally robust and economically efficient scallop cultivation systems require an understanding of a variety of critical factors: the environmental conditions at the project site, the tradeoffs of farm structure design, hydrodynamic characteristics of scallop containment gear, and the equipment, labor, and vessels required by discrete farm operations.
Through the coupling of engineering and operational evaluations of farming systems, the economic implications of farm design are revealed. For example, the tradeoffs between cultivation density and collision risk between farm components and resulting crop loss can be quantified.
Within this process we incorporate on-the-water data and learnings from one of the US’s only scallop farms. Comprehensive technoeconomic evaluation with these validated tools can help farmers minimize costs and maximize production for any given site.