SUBflex SPM Submersible Net Cage System for offshore mariculture

SUBflex offers customers its Mega-Farm concept of high volume cage arrays with production capacity range from 1,000-5,000 tons a year, accompanied with integrated solutions of waterborne automatic feeders, stainless steel fish pumps for harvesting, Air-Lift techniques for mortality collection and other tailor-made applications for every assignment related to the efficient cultivation process.

SUBflex' current pending international projects include three new offshore systems, scheduled to begin during 2009, designed to farm thousands of tons annually of prized industry species such as Atlantic Salmon, Cobia and Yellowtail Kingfish.

Unlike alternative cage systems, the SUBflex system is not stationary – it can rotate around its Single Point Mooring (SPM) and adapt to the changing natural ocean currents, in addition to submersible capability, thus minimising the high energy impact on the cages and their inhabitants. Furthermore the SUBflex SPM system comprises of several cages in a single file array, similar to gridline cages, without the multiple anchoring features. This proprietary design enables simultaneous operation on the cages instead of handling one cage at a time, therefore decreasing maintenance and operational costs.

Royal Fish, SUBflex' Israeli client operating 12km off the Israeli coastline at 65m water depth, has been using the SUBflex systems successfully for the past three years, harvesting healthy vital portion-size Gilthead Sea bream. This rich juicy fish retains its wild type features when grown in the highly oxygenated and microelements enriched offshore waters, thus maintaining its high market value under the local premium brand Prince Dennis. SUBflex installed a fourth system for Royal Fish in October 2008, bringing its production capacity to nearly 2,000 tons a year. It is, therefore, the world's biggest offshore fish farm in terms of open ocean production.

Advantages of SUBflex Systems:

• SPM (Single Point Mooring): Allowing circular movement around a single mooring unit, the system can rotate up to 360 degrees according to the changing currents. This proprietary design, used only by SUBflex worldwide, enables the system to adjust to currents and winds rather than resist them, giving it longer life span and higher durability in harsh weather conditions.

• Environmentally friendly: The SPM design allows for the dispersing of fish faeces and unconsumed feed in a large area of over 1,000m diameter, thus considerably minimising the impact on the sea bed and natural marine habitat. In addition, the large space potentially occupied by the SUBflex system creates a trawling and fishing free-zone and a natural ocean reserve.

• There when needed: The SUBflex system holds the capability to operate submerged for long periods and to be maintained underwater for as long as required by the sea conditions or biological requirements, such as high summer SSTs. In this case underwater water-borne feeding techniques are applied to insure continuous growth of the fish, simultaneously feeding all cages in the system array. Whenever necessary the system can be easily floated to the surface and retain conventional floating-cage characteristics, providing ideal cultivation and maintenance conditions.

• SUBflex delivers oxygen to the fish: The SPM proprietary design allows the fish to access different volumes of water around its single mooring, thus exposing them to constant oxygenated waters supplied by continuous currents. These enable dramatically increasing the stocking density, thus obtaining considerably higher productivity within the same lease.

• Modular, SUBmersible and FLEXible: SUBflex' Submersible Systems are modular and flexible, the only technology which enables changes in system's design, volume and capacity without having to change its foundations.