Offshore Mariculture Conference 2016 is off to a superb start!

Bernardo Basurco de Lara, Vice-President, Sociedad Espanola de Cuicultura, welcomed everyone to the Conference and to Barcelona, before going on to highlight that, while the economic crisis seen in Europe over the past few years has had an impact on Spain’s aquaculture industry, the sector has shrunk from around 70 active cage farms in Spanish waters in 2008, to 46 in 2014 – production capacity on those farms has risen in that time, he added.

An ocean of opportunity for offshore aquaculture

Ernesto Penas Lado, Directorate A – Policy development and coordination DG Mare, then took up the reins by stating that the conference comes at a time when expanding aquaculture to offshore areas is becoming increasingly practical. Lado went to to say that, even with few offshore developments, the EU aquaculture sector employs around 85,000 people and is worth between 3.5 and 4 billion euro to the economy each year. Although a small component of overall maritime economy, aquaculture is one of the five pillars of the EU’s Blue Growth strategy, the maritime component for achieving smart, sustainable and inclusive growth in the Union. Aquaculture has a high profile in the Strategy because it has the potential to deliver sustainable jobs and growth. A large amount of this untapped potential lies offshore. Until recently the costs of technology and the economic incentive associated with moving offshore were not aligned, but this is changing rapidly.

Investments in research and development through H2020, Fp7 and other programmes, such as MARIBE and DIVERSIFY, which are being presented at OMC, have resulted in huge improvements in the extent of our knowledge of marine ecosystems. Lado went on to reassure delegates that more projects are already following suit; 46 million euro will be spent on aquaculture related research projects in 2016 and 2017.

With the world population estimated to reach more than 8 billion by 2030, the demand for fish will continues to grow steadily. The key is that we continue to grow our knowledge, improve our technologies, and manage correctly. If we follow these principles, there is an ocean of opportunity for offshore aquaculture.

US well behind potential in aquaculture

The United States has struggled to take advantage of its great potential for aquaculture, noted Michael Rubino, director in the office of aquaculture at NOAA Fisheries Service, and the second keynote speaker at OMC 2016. Whilst the US is ranked first in the world in offshore potential, given environmental and economic factors, it has fallen well behind when compared with the likes of Norway. In fact, aquaculture has taken a dip since the early 2000s, as “farmers see greater returns producing corn than catfish”, he said. However, the uptick since 2010 has marked a change in proceedings; the popularity of oysters in large numbers of bars in cities has spurred aquaculture of the species, and given the practice some much-needed social acceptance too. There are a number of new projects on the horizon Rubino said, but getting permission to operate remains a drawn-out process. He revealed that since the Gulf of Mexico aquaculture plan was passed in January 2016, there have not been any new applications to farm viable species.

The first session of the day, entitled ‘Moving to high energy or offshore sites: the challenges and opportunities’ saw Donna Lanzetta, CEO Manna Fish Farms, presenting how Manna Fish Farms hopes to be the first finfish farm in US federal waters; it is still in the process of securing permits, but entrepreneur Donna is determined to see her plans for the site which is 14 nautical miles off the east coast of Long Island, come to fruition.

Should the company gain the required permits — a process which is difficult — it will farm striped bass in submersible pods not unlike those pioneered by Neil Sims in his ‘Vellela Project’. Growing in stages, Lanzetta hopes to reach 24 such pods, each capable of producing 95 metric tons of bass at harvest. Lanzetta hopes the firm will help research bluefin tuna farming and revealed that Manna plans to grow into a multi-trophic system, producing shellfish, seaweed and macro-algae as well as finfish. Lanzetta credited both Sims and Open Blue’s Brian O’Hanlon with pioneering open-ocean aquaculture, and emphasized that the US sector needs to begin farming offshore in order to begin data-gathering and testing just how to develop and improve.

Alonso Echevarría Ubilla, owner and director of consultancy AEX Group, then highlighted in his presentation that offshore aquaculture in Latin America is a virtually unexplored field. Oceanfarm produces cobia nine miles off the coast of Manta, Ecuador and AEX is working with them to conduct studies into environmental conditions, in order to analyse potential growth rates.

In the third presentation, Eleni Papathanasopoulou of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, told delegates that the UK has a large number of existing offshore oil and gas structures, the potential of which is “worth exploring” for aquaculture. There are 302 such installations off the UK coast — between 19 and 150 miles off shore — and by 2018, 50 of these will be approaching or already in the process of decomissioning, she said. Furthermore, over the next 30 years, all of them will need to be decomissioned. The large, heavy structures will need to stop their current activities, but could be used for aquaculture of some description. A number of factors would need to be considered, including physical, biological and chemical ones. However, the UK’s single current offshore farm — a mussel operation off Scotland — has been found to have improved its environment in terms of water quality and biodiversity. At this point scientists are actually able to use satellites to warn Scotland’s salmon farmers of impending harmful algal blooms, allowing them to take measures to try and mitigate the impact, she said. By 2020, Scotland is expected to up its finfish production by 17% (from 179,000 metric tons in 2014), while shellfish should grow faster, up 69% from 7,683t. These increases are expected to happen almost entirely in sheltered, inshore areas, Papathanasopoulou noted. Hence, why the potential of existing structures resistant to the violent offshore conditions is well worth researching. She also revealed that talks around co-location of sites alongside wind turbines had taken place as well, and that multi-use platforms may be one route to try.

The afternoon continued with a session on ‘Emerging business opportunities and industry projects’ which saw presentations covering large scale offshore seaweed farming, renewable energy for offshore fish farm sites, presentations on the MARIBE and DIVERSIFY projects and preparing for investment in offshore cage production in Southeast Asia.

Finally Marah Hardt of Future of Fish gave an insight to possible insights to innovating the supply chain.

Summing up the first day the Chairman, Alessandro Lovatelli, made the following observations:

• Social licenses and resources competition are still influencing the developing of marine aquaculture
• Spatial competition and the costs of moving offshore are pushing people to think of using decommissioned offshore facilities such as oil rigs. These costs have to be reduced as much as possible
• New products and companies are coming up that will provide professional service in both the design and building of fish farms The EU is committed to seeing the aquaculture industry grow
• Diversifying to different species is an issue, hence the support shown by the EU for research into news species
• We have also looked at the market and potential for seaweed * In Asia we have seen that there is not much space available, so aquaculture will either be made more intensive or aquaculture may go offshore
• The potential for the USA to develop its aquaculture is enormous

All participants enjoyed the conference dinner at La Gavina restaurant on Wednesday evening and returned to continue the conference on Thursday. A full round up of the event will appear in World Fishing & Aquaculture magazine.