The expansion of warm water aquaculture is trending away from sheltered sites to either land-based or open ocean production. The industry consensus is that to safely farm in the open ocean, equipment needs to be submerged to avoid the surface energy of waves and storms. Other benefits include less stakeholder conflict, operating in optimal temperatures for growth based on seasonal thermoclines, and evading parasites or algal blooms that are commonly found at the surface.
Until now there has not been an integrated suite of equipment and services capable of addressing all key steps of fish production from stocking to harvest in submerged equipment.
For the past five years, Innovasea has been developing a family of products to address the unmet needs of submerged open-ocean aquaculture. The SeaProtean pen provides the same walkway as traditional surface pens as well as a centered variable buoyancy chamber that affords more controlled linear descent and ascent than other circular submersible pens. The three discrete volumes in the buoyancy chamber allow the operator to choose from multiple depths and hold station at those depths. This is especially useful when targeting optimal growing conditions due to temperature and parasitic events.
Waterborne feeding is also available at commercial volumes and reliability. The modular FlowFeeder delivers the pellets in a slurry with water using 50% less energy than air-delivered feed. The feed rides in a cushion of fluid resulting in minimal pellet damage leading to better food conversion ratios.
An integrated software package and related sensors provide a host of data to the operators on the surface, allowing them to monitor the fish, the submersible pen structure, and the feeding events. Oceanographic metrics such as temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen both in and around the pens and grid system are reported in real-time to the feed vessel and staff on shore. Development of AI assisted feed operations through pellet detection and satiation markers stand to further improve feeding efficiencies for the farms. Biomass cameras monitor the size of the stock utilizing AI assistance for analysis, enabling farms to better predict sales schedules.
Through this submerged, fully integrated system, farms have the ability to effectively manage their operations while protecting fish and enjoying more consistent growth.