www.offshoremariculture.com

The theme of the conference is exploring the benefits and feasibility of moving farms out of static water into open sea sites, sometimes only 1km offshore.


Big names for  Offshore Mariculture 2006 conference in Malta

Five of the biggest names in pioneering offshore aquaculture worldwide will speak at Offshore Mariculture 2006, to be held in Malta on 11-13 October.

Professor Charles Helsley, who set up and ran the University of Hawaii’s experimental deep water farm from 1998-2000, that later developed into the Cates International farm, will share the platform with another Hawaiian company that commercialised the activity into a successful business farming amberjack, Neil Anthony Sims, CEO of Kona Blue.

 Dr Richard Langan, Director of the Atlantic Marine Aquaculture Centre, will talk of their extensive experience, starting in 1997, of developing a 30-acre field site, six miles off their coastline, which today farms native finfish in submersible cages and native shellfish on submerged long lines.
“ The purpose of our project is to facilitate the development of an economically viable, environmentally sound and socially compatible open ocean aquaculture industry in the north east of the US”, he said

The US trade deficit on seafood is $8 billion a year, second only to oil as a deficit commodity.

International aquaculture consultants Andrew Storey, Canada, and Professor Carmelo Agius, Malta, will talk on setting up and working on fish farm projects around the world.

Andrew Storey was instrumental in the development and growth of the New Brunswick salmon farming sector from 1986-1995 as part of Stolt Farm’s senior management team. Since then he has worked on projects internationally, for the past ten years in open ocean aquaculture, and on new cage technology through Open Ocean Systems Inc.

Professor Agius, formerly from Stirling University and currently with the University of Malta, was one of the pioneers of offshore fish farming development in the Mediterranean in the late eighties. Since then he has been closely involved in a variety of offshore cage aquaculture projects in various countries throughout the Mediterranean, Asia, the Middle East as well as the Far East. Since 1998 has been deeply involved in cage culture development of blue fin tunas. and as an international consultant for the UK based company Fusion Marine.

Aims

The conference aims to explore the progress and prospects for offshore aquaculture in European and international waters, which will culminate in a debate, lead by Professor Helsley, on where the business should be heading. The third day of the event will cover visits to fish farms around Malta, farming tuna, sea bream and sea bass.

Constraints to growth

More than 20 speakers will address key issues which offshore aquaculture must address to grow:

Offshore  Mariculture 2006 is organised by the Society for Underwater Technology and The Greenwich Forum and supported by the European Commission, European Aquaculture Society and the Maltese Ministry of Rural Affairs and the Environment

More information: www.offshoremariculture.com
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