Contact:
Dolores Leonard
dolores.leonard@unh.edu
603.862.3685

January 31, 2004

OOA welcomes the New Year with another major advance in the development of offshore aquaculture. The new, and much-anticipated, automated feed buoy was transported to the demonstration site in December 2003, and is now delivering food to Atlantic cod in the 3,000 cubic meter Sea Station cage. The new feed buoy, which measures 37 ft tall and 8 ft in diameter, has four times the capacity of 2002’s prototype buoy (1 ton as opposed to 1/4 ton) and can hold a weeks supply of food for the 32,000 cod fish contained in the cage.

The feed buoy was built at the UNH’s Chase Ocean Engineering Lab and assembled at the NH Port Authority pier in Portsmouth. Once the engineers were satisfied with mechanical systems and communications, the feeder was towed to the offshore farm. At the site, divers attached the feeder to its mooring and ran a 3 inch diameter flexible hose from the feeder to the cage. Inside the cage, the feed hose divides into three discharge ports to evenly distribute food.

The fish are fed 1-2 times per day, depending on season and temperature (colder waters slow fish digestion so that daily feeding is not always necessary). The feed buoy is powered by a diesel generator and pumps food to the submerged cage in a seawater slurry. It is remotely controlled using wireless ethernet communications from a computer at UNH’s Chase Ocean Engineering building. Operators can communicate with the feeder, initiate feed delivery and receive confirmation that the prescribed quantity of feed was indeed dispensed.

With the new feed buoy now in place and operational, OOA biologists and engineers are focusing on optimizing fish feeding systems. Video cameras mounted in the cage will allow researchers to monitor the release of food as well as observe the feeding behavior of the fish. In addition, engineers will continue their collaboration with industry on the development of larger feeders that can service multiple cages.