Offshore fish farming will play an important role in securing future growth of the global aquaculture industry, Steven Rafferty, newly appointed aquaculture director of Global Maritime, told IntraFish.

The company, which designed SalMar's Ocean Farm 1, just delivered yet another design for new salmon ocean farms to Norway's Erko Seafood.

Erko is applying for seven development licenses with 'North Fish Farm,' a floating stationary base platform designed to stand in weathered areas with lots of wind and high waves.

Global Maritime will "help move the aquaculture industry further into the open ocean," said Rafferty.

The concept contains a number of innovations, including a very simple construction and relatively low investment costs. In addition, it facilitates a high degree of automation and efficiency in relation to current practice.

Erko Seafood plans to build a prototype of an offshore farm to develop the concept of full-scale testing. It has has "significant differences" from existing concepts, which already applied for development licenses in Norway.

SalMar's concept was "very high-end and capital-intense," comparable with an oil platform, Rafferty told IntraFish.

However, new designs have the aim to make offshore farms "more accessible to Norwegian salmon farmers but also outside of Norway."

Rafferty sees growth opportunities in China, Australia, Korea, New Zealand but also in European countries such as Portugal and Spain, where even salmon farming could become a reality.

Water temperatures for traditional cage farming are too high in those countries. But further offshore, temperatures are lower, and farms "can go deeper," he said.

The farms suitable for salmon but also for species such as tuna, barramundi, cobia, sea bass and sea bream.

Ocean Farm 1 was Global Maritime's first design for offshore aquaculture, using its expertise from the offshore oil and gas industry and experience with marine supplies.

In his new role, Rafferty will initially focus on "a lot of business development work" in Norway's salmon farming industry, where currently "a lot of capital is spent" on developing offshore farming concepts.

Global Maritime is also consulting to governments in Europe, where "a lot of EU funding is available" to develop aquaculture.

Growth is simply "not possible with the current facilities," Rafferty said. "It will come from offshore and land-based aquaculture."

---

Sign up to our FREE weekly Salmon Newsletter here.

---

For more seafood news and updates, follow us on Facebook and Twitter or sign up for our daily newsletter.

Aquaculture

Exec: Offshore fish farming a 'massive' driver for future growth