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 of being submerged include less stakeholder conflict, optimal growing temperatures as a result of seasonal thermoclines, and the ability to evade parasites or 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 the key steps of fish production, from stocking to harvesting, with 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 cost-competitive SeaProtean pen provides the same walkway as traditional surface pens as well as a centered variable buoyancy chamber that affords a much 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.
Reliable waterborne feeding is now available at commercial volumes with the modular FlowFeeder , which delivers the pellets in a gentle flow of water using 50% less energy than air-blown systems. The feed rides in a cushion of fluid, minimizing pellet damage and improving food conversion ratios. Other benefits of the water cushion are less pipe damage and deposits of microplastics in the ocean.
Finally, AI-powered software and hardware solutions monitor underwater activity in real time to help optimize production. aquaEnvironment provides precise data on water conditions such as temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen in and around the pens to protect fish while BiomassPro instantly estimates the size and weight of fish stocks in real time to reduce feeding costs and better predict sales schedules.