Ward Aquafarms LLC — Department of Agriculture SBIR Phase I: 8.12

Description

The east coast of the United States has a prospering and growing shellfish aquaculture industry withover 1000 small farms producing $45 million annually in dockside revenue. However there arecurrently no marine finfish aquaculture operations outside of limited salmon operations in the stateof Maine. This is partially due to difficulty in securing permits for finfish operations and partiallydue to the difficulty in growing a fish in New England waters year round. With coastal watertemperatures that can fluctuate in excess of 20 degrees Celsius there are very few options in termsof species of fish to grow and places to grow them. The future expansion of the Massachusettsaquaculture industry is dependent on developing alternative strategies to diversify farms within ahighly developed marine ecosystem. This project will demonstrate the economic and environmentalviability of a novel grow-out strategy for farming steelhead trout by utilizing existing marinainfrastructure in the winter offseason from October to May. This will yield farmers a high-valuedoff-season crop for aquaculture operations increasing the profitability and production of the farm.Netpens are less likely to receive negative stakeholder feedback if sited in commercially establishedmarina locations in the winter offseason. The netpens will be surrounded by eastern oysters and bayscallops in lantern nets and lines of sugar kelp to incorporate an integrated multi-trophic design.The addition of filter feeding shellfish and nutrient retaining kelp will decrease the environmentalimpacts while increasing the economic viability of the system by adding new crops to the farm.