January 5, 2009
                                     

GreatBay Aquaculture, a land-based fish hatchery, is moving into the offshore aquaculture business off the coasts of Maine and New Hampshire in the US.

GreatBay has applied for a US$135,000 grant from the Maine Technology Institute to purchase an AquaPod, a 62-foot diameter, 3,250 square metre geodesic-shaped cage of polyethylene and wire mesh.

GreatBay could deploy its first AquaPod for commercial use in Searsmont, Maine, in June 2009.

Teeming with up to 25,000 fin fish, the cage could roam 3-200 miles offshore under the power of electric motors. The cages would leave shore with lab-hatched fingerlings and return in 18 months as fattened fish ready for market.

A submersible cage will not conflict with residents and investments can be protected as the fish do not feel the waves and weather below the ocean, according to George Nardi, co-founder and chief technology officer of GreatBay.

A submerged, mobile farm can also reduce damage to the seafloor as well as free fish from polluted water and low-dissolved oxygen content, Nardi added.

GreatBay wants to start testing AquaPod in Maine's Penobscot Bay when regulations are set to ensure it can operate the device and use it offshore.

GreatBay grows Atlantic cod, flounder, black sea bass and cobia fingerlings for sale to fish farmers in the US' New England region, China, Mexico and Puerto Rico.

If the plan of starting commercial offshore fish farms goes through, this would be among the first introduced in the US. AquaPods have also been used in Mexico, South Korea, Panama and Puerto Rico.

The near-shore aquaculture market is worth US$70 billion, with the US markets representing US$1 billion, according to a report by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute last year. The report also said 80 percent of US fish intake is foreign-grown.