ENGINEERING. PRACTICE. POLICY.
49 unmanned systems
inside
January/February 2016
"The skill of the operator still has a large
degree of inf luence on the effectivity of the
equipment," he said, "so I think there is a lot
of opportunity."
The level of operator involvement is a key
metric because many mariculture operations
will be located in areas where highly trained
workers, like those supporting the oil and gas
industry, are unlikely to be available.
The oil and gas industry is also a good anal-
ogy for how tough any mariculture equipment
has to be. Equipment needs to be robust and
easily maintainable, Kelly said.
"If you work with offshore oil and gas people
and they're trying to do something, regardless
of whether the equipment works or not, they
will try to do it—and they will try to fix it," he
said. "So if equipment goes out, …regardless
of whether they've read the user manual or
not, they will attempt to fix it and use it. And
that's just the nature of the environment that
we work in."
The Last Fish Out
There is also an opportunity for unmanned sys-
tems that can help get fish to market.
When the fish are fully-grown and the har-
vesting finally begins, farmers don't want to
leave a single fish behind for both economic and
environmental reasons. Harvests take place
over a number of days, typically by crowding
the fish and then removing them from the pens.
"Crowding when you have a fully populated
pen is one problem, Kelly said. Crowding when
you're down to the last 20 percent is an entirely
different problem. It's the last fish out problem,
which in the worst cases means sending divers
down to check their target practice with a spear
gun to get the last fish."
Kelly seemed to think, however, that there
might yet be a technical solution. "We're not done
with harvesting. It's one of my open challenges."
While it's not yet clear how robotics might
solve the last-fish problem, unmanned systems
have a clear advantage when it comes to another
big job—the transport of mariculture pens.
The "movement of cages from one place to
another is probably the most boring activity in
the field of fish farming just because there are
speeds that have to be respected," said Clifford
Goudey, a marine engineer with C.A. Goudey
& Associates. "Whether the cage is filled with
Coming from an
autonomous vehicle-
technology snob
perspective, it sort
of looks 1950s to
me," said Kelly, "but
it works and it may
make money, so it is
what it is."
–David Kelly, the chief
technology offcer for
InnovaSea
"
U.S. unleashes open ocean farmers
The U.S. mariculture industry, like
the unmanned aircraft sector, has
been hamstrung for years, waiting for
regulations—until now.
On January 13, the National Oceanic
and Atmospheric Administration
implemented its frst set of rules for open
ocean farmers in the U.S. Years in the
making the regulations detail things like
what species can be raised, broodstock
sources, the types of systems that can
be used, siting requirements and how to
apply for permits. Though specifc to the
Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico and South
Atlantic, this frst set of rules can serve
as a guide for other regulatory bodies,
speeding things along.
The fnal rule for the Gulf of Mexico
provides a model for everything else, said
Donna Lanzetta, who is both an attorney
and the CEO of Manna Fish Farms. "It has
a template for permitting and water testing,
environmental impact statements—really
how it needs to get done."
Lanzetta is in the process of getting
permits for Manna Fish Farms, which
will operate 16 miles off the coast of
Long Island, NY. Though the Atlantic
States Marine Fisheries Commission
still needs to enact rules governing her
region "it shouldn't be too long before
that's done," she said. She hopes to
have her permits in roughly a year.
The lack of regulations has been a
problem up to now, Lanzetta said. "The
United States has just not gotten going
I think primarily because there's been
no template and no guidelines as to
how to proceed with permitting."
The new rule is available at:
https://www.federalregister.gov/
articles/2016/01/13/2016-00147/
fsheries-of-the-caribbean-gulf-and-
south-atlantic-aquaculture#h-10