Plugging aquaculture into the energy infrastructure
The North and Baltic Seas are notoriously wild and windy. While these conditions are ideal for offshore wind farms, they make anchoring low trophic aquaculture (LTA) species such as seaweed and mussels nearly impossible. But what if LTA farms were integrated into existing offshore wind farms, using the wind infrastructure as anchors? That’s the thinking behind the ULTFARMS project, which is developing the engineering, technical, ecological and biological processes needed to make this happen. The project is testing longlines, anchors, tube and net systems, delineation buoys and other solutions that can be used to farm seaweed, blue mussels and oysters within offshore wind farms.