Resources

Kelson Marine is an active member of the ICES Working Group for Open Ocean Aquaculture (WGOOA). As a Working Group, we have convened farmers, engineers, regulators, and scientists to resolve the present ambiguity in the term "Offshore Aquaculture". The Working Group now recommends two distinct metrics to quantitatively describe aquaculture sites:

"Distance from shore": Sites are described by their distance from the coast.

"Exposure": Sites are further described with an exposure index that incorporates the design wave, current velocity, and depth of the site.

This distinction addresses a need to define the terminology to reduce ambiguity for characterizing aquaculture sites to:

1. Promote a common understanding and avoid misuse of different classifications;
2. Enable regulators to identify the characteristics of a marine site;
3. Allow farmers to assess or quantitively compare sites for development;
4. Equip developers and producers to identify operational parameters for the equipment and vessels; and
5. Provide insurers and investors with better means to assess risk and premiums.

To help farmers, developers, regulators, investors, and members of the public apply these definitions, Kelson provides a calculator for the proposed exposure index definitions.

References:

Lojek, O. Goseberg, N., Moe Fore, H., Dewhurst, T., Bölker, T, Heasman, K, Buck, B, Fredriksson, DW, Rickerich, S, 2023. A quantified approach to assessing hydrodynamic exposure of mariculture sites. Journal of the World Aquaculture Society. In preparation.

Buck, B. H., Bjelland, H., Bockus, A., Chambers, M., Costa-Pierce, B. A., Dewhurst, T., Ferreira, J., Føre, H. M., Fredriksson, D., Goseberg, N., Holmyard, J., Isbert, W., Krause, G., Markus, T., Papandroulakis, N., Sclodnick, T., Silkes, B., Strand, Å., Troell, M., Wieczorek, D., van den Burg, S., Heasman, K. 2023. Resolving the term ‘offshore aquaculture’ by decoupling ‘exposed’ and ‘distance from shore’ for managers and policy makers. Journal of the World Aquaculture Society. In preparation.