Offshore Salmon Farming
Overview & Benefits
There are huge benefits associated with offshore aquaculture moving farms away from their traditional inshore locations. By being in the open sea, sea lice risks are greatly reduced by being away from the mouths of rivers and there is strong waste dispersal in the open sea. However, the open sea is already busy which is why Simply Blue Group is interested in location salmon farms within its floating offshore wind farms. The primary benefit of doing this is the shared use of space.
Floating offshore wind covers a bigger footprint relative to fixed offshore wind so has significant space between the turbines: 200 hectares between four 15 MW turbines. Sea space must be optimised. The incorporation of aquaculture into offshore wind farms is an effective way to utilise offshore space efficiently to produce green energy and sustainable food supply.
Offshore salmon farming is already underway in Norway, where deployment of systems has begun 45 miles off the coast. Early cycles will produce reduced capacities to verify fish welfare, before scaling up to full production.
As technology-neutral project developers, Simply Blue Group would like to partner with a salmon farming organisation. Together we will choose an offshore farming system and develop a sustainable pioneer offshore aquaculture project as a precursor to going offshore shore within the wind farms.
Related Projects
Loch Long Salmon
Using low-impact farming methods to deliver environmental and fish welfare