CINEMar/Open Ocean Aquaculture Annual Progress Report for the period 1/01/05 through 12/31/05

Principal Investigator: Michael Chambers

Operations Team: Glen Rice, Caleb Thibeault, Forbes Horton, Stanley Boduch and Graham McKay

I. Accomplishments

A. Scheduled Tasks
1. Provide support for research and operations, including;

1. Haddock harvest
2. Cod culture and harvest
3. Mussel operations
4. Deployment of load cells in the grid
5. Pendant exchange on the cod cage
6. Diving operations
7. Farm Maintenance Tasks

2. Promote OOA site as an incubator for offshore technologies

1. AquaPod™ fish cage (modeling and deployment)
2. Deployment of the JPS-UNH submersible cage
3. Support for twenty ton feed buoy development

3. Engage in information and technology exchange with academia, government and industry

B. Progress on Tasks
1. Support for Research and Operations.
The project is staffed by a Manager who is assisted by 4.5 FTEs. The responsibility of the management and operations team is to develop and maintain shoreside and offshore infrastructure including moorings, cages, feeders, specialized equipment, vessels and vehicles. They are also responsible for providing vessel, logistical and dive support for research activities and for performing routine (e.g. sampling) and event-based (e.g. harvesting) tasks associated with fish and shellfish culture.

While most operational tasks were successfully accomplished, the operations crew had to deal with considerably more complexity over the past year, due largely to the need to develop mechanized harvests of haddock and cod, difficulties brought on by storm damage to a one-ton feeder, and by unusually harsh weather during the fall of 2005. These difficulties were offset to a large degree by the acquisition of the R/V Meriel B, which made many of the routine and specialized tasks far easier to perform. The operations crew has relied to a large extent on diving to carry out project tasks and this past year was no exception. More effort will be directed toward developing alternative methods of accomplishing some of these tasks to reduce dive time.

a. Haddock harvest. Haddock were harvested in September at approximately 1200g (Figure 4). They had been raised in the SS 600 since December of 2002. Divers were used to herd the fish into a capture area from which they were pumped onboard the R/V Meriel B with an Aqua-Life model 1210-P fish pump. Haddock were passed through a de-watering table before being bled, gutted and placed into an ice slurry in insulated containers. The fish were sold to North Atlantic Seafoods in Portland, ME (no revenue to project).

b. Cod culture and harvest. Cod have been maintained in the SS 3000 cage since September of 2003. Initially, they were fed daily by the 1 ton feed buoy (section I.B.2. of Project Infrastructure) and later by pump venturi from project vessels. A marine ration produced by Zeigler, 55% protein and 15% lipid, was stored in the feed buoy and administered daily. Feed amounts were calculated based upon fish size and temperature. Fish activity levels were observed during feeding with low light, underwater video cameras mounted along the spar of the cage. Cod were sampled monthly with divers using hand held nets and PVC framed dive bags.

Live harvest
In an effort to open a previously unexplored market, UNH, in conjunction with Great Bay Aquaculture, removed scrod sized cod from the cage to be sold live. This was not a simple task due to cod’s difficulty adjusting their swim bladders to pressure changes as they are brought to the surface from depth. Techniques had to be developed to remove groups of cod from the SS 3000 cage, slowly decompress, and transfer from the harvest cage to the vessel and from the vessel to a shoreside holding pen.

A seine net was installed inside the cage to create a funneled capture area. At the end of the funnel a 10” diameter hose connected the cage to a hydraulic fish pump. A 10” diameter hose, 50’ long, connected the fish pump to an independently moored, subsurface harvest cage. The 280 m³ cage was suspended from a floating frame at the surface to a depth equal to that of the cage rim (25 m). Divers herded the cod into the funnel where they were pushed toward the pump by means of a crowder (a triangular shaped, rigid net designed to fit the shape of the cage). Once transferred to the harvest cage, the fish were then slowly brought to the surface from a depth of 70’ over a 7-8 hour period. A strict decompression schedule was established to minimize inflation of the gas bladders (Figure 2). Once the fish reached the surface the fish pump was repositioned on deck and the fish were pumped out of the harvest cage and into 4 m³, live haul tanks on the deck of the Meriel B. The fish were then brought back to UNH’s Coastal Marine Lab (CML) and either placed in holding pens under the pier or transferred directly to the buyer’s truck (Figure 3). Mortality, attributed to stress and the decompression failure averaged 10%.

Live harvesting was not without complications. Fish mortality was a concern in the summer because of the pronounced thermocline that exists during those months in the Gulf of Maine with temperature variations of 10-20°C from cage depth to surface respectively. Alternative strategies for harvesting live fish must be developed to maximize efficiency and survival.

Fresh harvest
Although live cod harvest was somewhat successful and indeed economically attractive, the quantity of fish that could be harvested per trip was limited by the large volume of circulating water required to transport live fish. Weight could be increased 500%-600% per trip if the fish were processed at sea and with the winter fast approaching it became an attractive option. The fresh harvest was carried out in much the same way as the live harvest, however, the Sea Station cage was raised to the surface to reduce dive time at depth. The fish were herded down the “sock,” (a funnel shaped net) and pumped through a dewatering table into a chilled seawater holding tank. A small incision was made in the gill arch and the fish were transferred to a chilled seawater bleeding tank. After a 20-30 minute period in the tank, the fish were eviscerated and packed in a seawater ice slurry. The fish were shipped to buyers in Boston, MA and Portland, ME.

c. Mussel operations Mussel culture has advanced to the technology utilization stage, and commercial farms that were established in late 2004 several miles from the UNH demonstration site were seeded for growout in 2005. Three of the four lines were seeded in early June with seed mussels that were air lifted from one of the project’s Sea Station cages (Figure 5). A fourth line was seeded with mussel seed purchased from Tight Rope Sea Farm in Blue Hill Maine. The mussels taken off the Sea Station cage were 10 to 15 mm shell height long and will be ready for harvest in early spring. The purchased seed was 30 mm and will be ready for harvest in late winter. The estimated yield for the long line with the purchased seed will be less than the other three lines due to a lower socking density that resulted from the comparatively large size of the seed.

Approximately 4,000 pounds of market-sized mussels were harvested from one of the experimental longlines located at the UNH OOA site. The mussels were sent to Great Eastern Mussel Farm in Tenants Harbor Maine for processing. Previous trials with the company had mixed results yielding large percentages of broken mussels. It was unclear in preliminary trials with the Great Eastern if it was the processing equipment or the handling of the mussels that caused the breakage. The mussels in this trial were carefully handled and breakage still occurred. It was determined by the company that their equipment could not effectively process thin-shelled mussels. Several manufactures of mussel processing equipment make products specifically for the thinner shell mussels and arrangements for the purchase of this equipment are being made.

d. Deployment of load cells in the grid. Four load cells were scheduled to be deployed into the grid in calendar year 2005. The load cells were in use for another project, so deployment did not begin until spring 2005. These load cells are to be used to measure forcing in the grid and anchor lines in the northeast corner of the grid system (Figure 6). Installation was more difficult than anticipated due to higher tensions than expected and three of the four cells have been deployed to date. Deployment of the final load cell is scheduled to happen as soon as weather allows. Monitoring of the grid will be conducted during the spring of 2006, providing information on the sensitivity of the mooring system to anchor placement, and the capacity of the system to support larger cages.

e. Pendant exchange on the cod cage. The unique movement of the SS 3000 combined with the texture of the bottom substrate at the site caused the 6000 lb. pendant weight (PW) to bury itself into the sediment, preventing the cage from being raised to the surface for maintenance and harvesting. Extracting the weight from the sediment proved to be beyond the lifting capacity of local vessels, therefore replacement was determined to be the best option. A new pendant weight was constructed from 3700 lbs. of steamer chain, which was within the working range of the vessels winch. The exchange was executed in October 2005,

f. Dive operations. Operational tasks at the farm have been designed to reduce the project’s dependency on divers. Despite these efforts, divers continue to play a fundamental role in the operation of the farm. Over five hundred dives are conducted annually in support of the farm. Tasks include (with percent time spent); cleaning of the cages (17%), inspection of the mooring system (10%), maintenance of the underwater structures (31%), fish husbandry which includes collecting samples, feeding systems and cameras (12%), and harvesting fish for market (30%). Due to the unforgiving nature of working underwater, diver safety must be thought of before, during, and after diving operation.

University diving operations are regulated by a twelve member Diving Control Board (DCB) who follow the safety guidelines of the American Academy of Underwater Scientists (AAUS) for research diving and those of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for activities that fall outside the definition of research diving. Review of the project’s dive operations in the spring of 2006 determined that many dive activities fell outside AAUS guidelines and resulted in a number of new requirements and restrictions for dive operations. This new set of rules has increased cost and complexity of dive operations, and requires extra divers and equipment, as well as approval of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for any new operations. Approval of SOPs had hampered scheduling of time-sensitive tasks, particularly during seasons when weather windows tend to be narrow. In addition, the DCB now mandates the use of certified commercial divers for some operations, further complicating scheduling and increasing costs.

g. Farm Maintenance Tasks
Heavy biofouling of the cage netting requires regular maintenance (Figure 1). The SS 600 was cleaned twice, early summer and the fall, while the SS 3000 was cleaned once in the fall. The mussel seed removed from the SS 600 during the summer cleaning was transferred to several long lines for on-growing at commercial farms.

In late January 2005, the .25 ton feed buoy was removed from the farm and brought to the CML pier where it was disassembled and transported to the ocean engineering building for refurbishment.

On several occasions the feed hoses with integrated camera wires became damaged. Repairs quickly restored feeding and viewing capabilities at the farm.

Other routine maintenance tasks involved grid inspection and cleaning, perimeter buoy replacement and setting marker buoys for the environmental monitoring group.

2. Promote the research site as an incubator for new technologies
Successful performance of the project’s offshore platform has attracted the attention of equipment manufacturing companies and several have expressed interest in using the site to evaluate new technologies. Two new cage systems including Ocean Farm Technologies (OFT) from Searsmount, ME and JPS Industries of Bristol, NH have developed cage designs, and Net Systems, Inc., in collaboration with UNH engineers has developed a design for a multi-cage automated feeder that will be evaluated at the site.

Other manufacturers that are awaiting space in the grid include Open Water Systems (OWS) from Ontario, Canada. The OWS cage is currently being tested in Lake Huron and has the ability to be slowly raised and lowered in the water column.

These new innovations in offshore aquaculture technology will be tested by UNH engineers using numerical and physical models to determine their ability to withstand open ocean conditions prior to installation. Once installed, field assessment of operational components such as controlled descent and ascent, integrated feeding, mortality removal and harvesting capabilities will be made. Future systems must reduce diver dependency and incorporate methods for net removal and cleaning from a surface vessel.

a. AquaPod™ cage
Ocean Farm Technologies, LLC (OFT) has designed a new geodesic sphere-shaped cage. The AquaPodTM fish containment system was deployed in nearshore Maine waters in the summer of 2005, and a second prototype was deployed at the UNH offshore site in September. The sphere is built with 80 triangular modular panels made of fiberglass-reinforced polyethylene with 1” coated wire mesh for the net. This 31’ diameter, 500 m³ cage will be tested at the OOA site without fish during the 2005-2006 winter. The AquaPod™ was towed from the NH State Pier to the OOA farm (Figure 7) and is currently positioned in the northwest quadrant of the OOA grid system. The mooring system is very similar to those of the Sea-Station cages. Each of the four attachment points on the cage connect to the grid through a series of upper and lower bridle lines. Unlike the Sea-Station the AquaPodTM mooring does not currently include a pendant weight for ballast. Instead several variations of surface floats have been utilized in order to maintain the desired depth in the water column

UNH engineers applied AquaFE, a finite element modeling program to simulate cage motion and to determine the best method to moor the cage within the submerged grid. The same model was then used to study different configurations of weights and floats on the cage and mooring lines. The objective was to allow operators to raise and lower the cage, and to compensate for the effects of biofouling. Several different configurations were tested, primarily using a pendant weight on two of the bridles with different float arrangements. The floats could be filled with air to bring the cage to the surface, or filled with water to sink the cage until the pendent weights hit the bottom. These floats could also be filled with air to raise the cage as biofouling accumulates.

b. JPS Submersible cage.
The plastic, submersible cage designed by JPS Industries and UNH Ocean Engineering as part of a small business initiative research grant is scheduled for deployment early in 2006. JPS is fabricating cage components that will be assembled in Portsmouth, NH. The cage will be towed to the UNH site by boat and attached to pre-deployed mooring lines. Once the cage is in place, the pendent weight will be attached.

The cage will be inspected frequently to evaluate materials and construction method. Two load cells will be attached to monitor forces on the mooring lines.

c. Support for the Net Systems-UNH 20-ton feeder
After a number of delays, a design for a 20-ton feeder developed by Net Systems, Inc. through a NOAA SBIR project has gone out for construction bid. A contract will be awarded in January 2006 and construction and delivery is expected in late spring 2006.

3. Information and technology exchange
Numerous meetings were held with industry, government and research institutions both nationally and internationally. Collaboration amongst the different entities encourages information exchange, problem solving, and new research initiatives.

Meetings for the year are highlighted in section I.F of this report. The most recent collaborations are between Norway and Canada. SINTEF Aquaculture and Fisheries in Trondheim, Norway is organizing “CREATE” the Center for Research Based ­ Innovation in Aquaculture Technology. CREATE has invited UNH into a small pool of institutions to develop and advance innovative technologies for the design, operations and management of future fish farms.

The Canadian Consulate Generals’ Office in Boston and the National Research Counsel, New Brunswick, Canada has approached the OOA group to develop a similar open ocean aquaculture research and demonstration project 6 miles offshore of Nova Scotia, Canada. Meetings will be held in January of 2006 in Newfoundland to further develop this collaboration.

C. Important Results or Findings
While there have been many advancements over the past year, our experiences indicate that many technological and operational challenges remain. New approaches for harvesting, cleaning, monitoring, and reduced diver dependency in open ocean farming need to be developed to improve efficiency.

D. Difficulties Encountered
Diver dependency, weather, and surface equipment failure in storms have contributed to operational difficulties.

E. Anticipated Success in Meeting Project Objectives on Schedule
All Project Management objectives were successful other than delays with the cod harvest and deployment of new the fish tracking buoy.

F. Reports, manuscripts, and presentations resulting from the project
Peer Reviewed Manuscripts
Howell, W. H. and M. D. Chambers (2005). “Growth Performance and Survival of the Atlantic Halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus) in a Submerged Net Pen”. Bulletin of the Aquaculture Association of Canada. 9:35-37.

Chambers, M.D. and W.H. Howell (In Press). “Preliminary information on cod and haddock production in submerged cages off the coast of New Hampshire, USA”. ICES Journal of Marine Science.

Presentations
Aquaculture Europe 2005: Chambers, M. D., H. Howell, W. Watson, and C. Rillihan. “Use of biotelemetry to optimize cod culture in submerged, offshore cages”, August 5-9, 2005. Trondheim, Norway.

Open Ocean Aquaculture Engineering Workshop: Rice, G. “Operations of an Open Ocean Farm”, August 14-18, 2005, Torshavn, Faroes Islands.

IEEE/MTS OCEANS Conference: Chaffey, M., W. Paul, W. Hamilton, and S. Boduch. "The Use of Snubbers as Strain Limiters in Moorings", September 2005, Washington, DC.

Shoals Marine Laboratory: Chambers, M. “Open Ocean Aquaculture, the Wave of the Future”, July 18, 2005, Isle of Shoals, NH.

Conferences and Workshops
Aquaculture America 2005. New Orleans, La. January 19-21, 2005. R. Langan, H. Howell, and M. Chambers. OOA members engaged industry, government and academia in the latest developments in open ocean aquaculture.

Offshore Aquaculture Summit 2005. Keystone, CO. May 27-29, 2005. Participants were R. Langan, M. Chambers and J. DeCew. The summit engaged industry leaders on the current status of farming the open ocean. The meeting involved creative brain storming sessions highlighting challenges and potential solutions to moving aquaculture offshore.

AquaNor 2005. Trondhiem, Norway August 9-12, 2005. H. Howell, M. Chambers and G. Rice. Visited the tradeshow and net worked with fish farmers, scientists and equipment manufacturers.

Industry Collaborations
Enterprise Product Partners, Houston TX. - Developing a pilot scale, remote controlled fish farm on a platform in the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane Katrina has put this project on hold until a later date.

Ocean Farm Technologies, LLC, Searsmont, ME. Currently field testing a 600m³ AquaPod™ fish containment system in the UNH-OOA grid.

United Soybean Board and American Soybean Association, St Louis, MO. Collaborating on the development of a low volume (100m³), submersible fish cage for China and the US.

JPS Industries, Bristol, NH. Small Business Innovation Research Grant to develop a low cost, submersible fish cage in New England.

SINTEFF, Trondheim, Norway. Currently building a consortium of industry and research institutions for the Center for Research Based ­ Innovation in Aquaculture Technology (CREATE).

Cook Aquaculture and Subflex. Met at the Ira C. Darling Marine Center, Walpole ME, May 2, 2005. This workshop focused on locating a exposed ocean site in Maine to test a new, fish containment system.

Aquaculture Engineering Group, Hillsborough, New Brunswick, CA. Meetings were conducted in the US and Canada to advance the development of open ocean feeding technologies (Fig. 8).

Open Water Systems, Mindemoya, Ontario, CA. An aquaculture equipment company that is requesting modelling and field evaluation of a new, submersible fish pen.

National Research Council, New Brunswick, CA and the Canadian Consulate Generals Office, Boston, MA. Collaborations have commenced to create an open ocean aquaculture research and demonstration site off the Western coast of Nova Scotia, CA.

Interim Steering Committee member for the International Council for Offshore Aquaculture Development. M. Chambers was elected to the committee in February 2005. This organization formed from the “Farming the Deep Blue Conference” held in Limerick, Ireland in October 2004. The organization is a virtual institute to bring about the accelerated development of offshore aquaculture.

II. Tasks and Activities for Next Reporting period

A. Tasks for the next reporting period
1. Continue to manage and coordinate research activities at the OOA site.
2. Continue to collaborate and disseminate technologies from the OOA project with industry and academia
3. Prepare SS3000 and SS600 cages for stocking
4. Deploy and assess the JPS submersible cage
5. Cod transfer and culture
6. Halibut transfer and culture
7. Transfer mussel culture technology
8. Analysis of tensions in the grid
9. Evaluate low volume submersible fish cages
10. Deploy the 20 ton feed buoy system
11. Deploy the HTI fish tracking system
12. Continue the AquaPod evaluation
13. Evaluate capacity of the submerged grid

B. Brief work plan to accomplish tasks
1. Management. The Project Manager and operations staff in consultation with the Project Director and the project’s Executive Committee will accomplish management of the research and operational activities.

2. Collaborations. Collaboration and technology exchange will continue with academic institutions, industry partners and government agencies. Meetings are planned with the American Soybean Association in Las Vegas at Aquaculture America; the National Research Council in St. Johns Newfoundland; and with international groups at the World Aquaculture Society meeting in Florence, Italy.

3. Prepare Sea Station cages for stocking. With the completion of the initial production runs for cod and haddock, the Sea Station 600 and 3,000 will be prepped for a second production run of halibut and cod. Nets will be removed for cleaning, repair and treatment with anti-fouling coatings. The rims and spars will be cleaned and new anodes will be installed.

4. Deploy and assess the JPS cage A plastic submersible cage developed by JPS Industries, Bristol, NH through an SBIR grant will be constructed and deployed in early 2006. This cage was originally scheduled for deployment during the fall of 2005, however, due to design changes, construction has been delayed.

5. Cod transfer and culture In the spring of 2006, approximately 50,000 cod weighing 75g will be transferred offshore to a nursery net located inside the SS 3000 cage. A live haul truck will transfer cod from GBA to the Port Authority in 5 m³ tanks supplied with oxygen. The tanks will be lifted with a crane and placed on the deck of a commercial fishing vessel and transported offshore. At site, the vessel will transfer the fish from the boat to the cage. Cod will be observed by underwater cameras and fed daily. Initially, feed will be dispensed via a boat-mounted feed venturi until the 20-ton feed buoy comes on line.

6. Halibut transfer and culture. A second production cycle of halibut culture will begin in early summer 2006. Approximately 3,500 1 kg halibut will be stocked into the 600 m³ Sea Station cage to determine growout time to 5kg. The fish will be will transferred from Scotia Halibut, Clarks Harbor, Nova Scotia in a transport truck to the Port Authority in Portsmouth, NH. From there, the 5m³ live haul tanks will be lifted with a crane and placed onto the deck of a contracted fishing vessel. Once the halibut are transferred offshore, they will be fed by the 20 ton feed buoy that will also provide real time video transmission and controlled feeding. Divers will sample the fish monthly.

7. Transfer of mussel culture technology. In 2006, the emphasis for mussel culture will be on successful utilization of the technology by commercial entities. In addition to providing technical assistance with production and husbandry, more effort will be directed toward assisting the commercial ventures with developing processing capacity.

The commercial sites south of the UNH demonstration farm are licensed to the Portsmouth and Yankee Fishing Cooperatives. The cooperatives have granted Andy Lang, a New Castle, NH fisherman, permission to use all the permitted longlines. Mr. Lang has purchased the materials for 6 additional to add to the four already installed and in production.

In addition, the UNH will transfer the license for the two lines at the demonstration site to Mr. Lang. This transfer will put twelve lines into commercial production with an estimated production potential of 150,000 pounds of mussels per year.

8. Analysis of tensions in the grid. UNH has maintained a submerged grid mooring system at the OOA site since the summer of 2003. While this mooring has been adequate, installation of larger cages will likely push the system toward its design limit. Additional engineering analysis is needed to determine the capacity of the mooring system for future cage deployments.

Evaluations include field measurements using load cells to get accurate information about the tensions in the deployed mooring geometry. In addition, anchor positioning will need to be accurately assessed. This information will be important in future use of the UNH submerged grid mooring, but also in the future design of other systems.

9. Assessment of low volume submersible fish cages. The American Soybean Association (ASA) has been developing a small scale, semi submersible fish cage for coastal China. UNH engineers have applied a numerical model to the system to evaluate dynamics within the water column. Discussions are under way to work with a local fisherman to demonstrate the use of this technology. The concept is that the 100m³ cage size could be readily serviced with existing available on fishing boats.

10. Deployment of the 20 ton feed buoy system. The 20-ton feed buoy designed by Net Systems and UNH is scheduled for deployment in the early summer of 2006. Following construction, the buoy will be towed to the New Hampshire Port Authority for installation of the final components, primarily the electronic control systems. The buoy will be tested at the pier before being towed to the UNH site.

At the site, the feeder will be positioned and attached to the pre-deployed mooring system. The feed hoses, video cables and fish tracking hydrophones will be secured to be secured to the grid and mooring lines by divers, some of which can be placed before the buoy arrives. Testing of the buoy systems will continue once the buoy is installed at the site.

11. Deployment of the HTI fish tracking buoy. Originally housed in the one-ton feeder, the acoustic fish tracking system has been installed in a retrofitted navigation buoy (Figure 8). Initially, the buoy will be centrally moored above the center of the grid so that video and hydrophone cables can be attached to any cage in the grid system. The system will be transferred to the 20 ton feed buoy when it comes on line in 2006. Cables for the system’s hydrophones, video, and current meter will be bundled in a protective hose and mounted in parallel with the feeding hose to the SS 3000.

12. AquaPod evaluation. The AquaPod cage is currently under evaluation in the NW grid quadrant at the OOA site. Based upon performance, a larger, 5000m³ AquaPod will be considered for installation and growout of cod in the summer of 2006. Additional numerical modeling will be conducted to determine the effects of a larger cage in the UNH grid.

13. Improvements to the submerged grid. The submerged grid mooring system installed in 2003 has performed well for the cages currently in use, however, the capability of the system to accommodate larger cages is unknown. The addition of larger experimental cages into the grid requires an examination of the loading on the deployed grid and the possible addition of strengthening components.

The current grid mooring design designates the anchors as the weakest link. A system failure would therefore result in a dragged anchor rather than a parted anchor line or a failed grid corner. This makes recovery and repair much simpler and cost effective. One possible scenario to strengthen the system is to add more anchors, however, if anchors are added such that other mooring components are now the weak link, other more complex reinforcement options must be considered.

C. Anticipated concerns or difficulties
Deployment and successful operation of the 20 ton feed buoy will be a major advancement for the culture and husbandry of the fish. However, deployment of the 600’ of underwater feed and instrumentation hoses will be a difficult task. Operational plans will be developed with the crew to make this effort safe and efficient as possible.

III. Expenditures
Expenditures were within the anticipated range.