EXPERT TOPIC LOBSTER
LOBSTER
EXPERT TOPIC Field monitoring for offshore lobster aquaculture
As reported by Dr Jamie Luxmoore, Research Fellow, University of Exeter
International Aquafeed attended Oceanology International 2018, at which Jamie Luxemoore, Research Fellow at the University of Exeter gave a presentation on an innovative mooring design and assessment for an aquaculture system as part of the “Lobster Grower 2 project”. The project is a three-year consortium led project aiming to establish a pilot scale lobster farm, field testing a novel sea-based container culture and developing an innovative anchoring/ mooring system. The project will also develop an aqua-economic model and road map and aims to de-risk farming operations through environmental impact assessment. His previous work at Exeter involved investigating the performance and reliability of a novel design of mooring system for use with floating Wave Energy Converters. Jamie’s PhD was at Lancaster University studying wave loading on offshore wind turbine support structures with a particular interest in the effects of rogue waves and rogue wave development in bi-directional seas. Prior to his PhD Jamie’s background was in high speed aerodynamics and the associated structural resonance in military aircraft at BAE SYSTEMS. He has also worked in white goods test and development and his undergraduate degree was in Aeronautical Engineering.
I’m going to talk about the field monitoring on our Lobster Grower 2 project. A brief introduction into the project itself and then an overview of the whole field monitoring programme. Then I’m going to dive into the deep end of what we’re monitoring: Site and Environment Monitoring including; Wave buoys, Acoustic Doppler current profilers, Bio-chemical water quality arrays, Spot-point sampling for bio-chemical water quality and micro-constituents. Finally, we will discuss Container Based Monitoring; Internal environment monitoring and Container motion monitoring. Lobster Grower 2 is a three-year project funded by Innovate UK and BBSCRC to establish a pilot scale lobster farm. The lobster grower 1 study developed a no-feed input system for rearing European Lobster (Homarus gammarus) at sea. The techniques developed should be suitable for either stock enhancement or for aquaculture. At the moment, lobster farming isn’t really something that happens, certainly not on any scale, for a number of reasons. They take a long to grow for one and they tend to eat each other so they need to be kept in separate containers. But the Lobster Grower 1 study developed a no-feed input system for rearing European Lobster (Homarus gammarus) at sea. We’re
34 | March 2018 - International Aquafeed