New large seacages design for high current and waves.

The marine aquaculture industry has experienced enormous evolution and growth in Norway over the past four decades. Initially, farms were located in protected fjords or bays but over the past decade, the industry has moved to less sheltered sites, in search of space to expand and improved farming conditions. Even though over the past 15–20 years, commercial aquaculture farms have been establishing in increasingly dynamic environments, the pace of exposed sites aquaculture development has been slow owing to the lack of suitable technology, operations and management techniques that allows efficient farm operations in high-energy exposed environments. This transition has been accomplished by moving existing infrastructure, logistics, and scale of operations without the necessary degree of industry planning required to establish larger capacity farm sites and the efficiency required for analysis of economic consequences. The development of an industry sector in exposed sites requires new approach owing to the investment costs and risk exposure. Structural failures may be generated by severe environmental forcing or human errors. Adapted solutions are required to reduce risks in areas with high currents and waves, as the loads from the environment will increase in magnitude and make working conditions more difficult for the farmers.
This paper presents some new designs on the adaptation of the plastic collar floating cages and other components (mooring, feeding barge, flexible hoses) ; Focus is on a)the movement of each components (cage, flexible feeding pipes, mooring systems) b) optimum cage volume for fish c) System for reducing loads from waves and current. Also a novel model program based on super-elements is presented and allows easy and accurate simulation of new designs.