Connecting Aquaculture and Wind Farms?

In a recent email discussion with Cliff Goudey, Director Offshore Aquaculture Engineering Center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), I was surprised to find out that he leads an effort to develop aquaculture technology that would allow for open ocean farming in conjunction with ongoing renewable energy initiatives.

"I am also leading an effort aimed at developing fish and shellfish culturing technologies that can operate synergistically with offshore renewable energy projects (wind & wave)," he wrote.

This reminded me of an earlier blog post in 2005 when I wrote about similar efforts to enable aquaculture projects using existing oil and gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Goudey, was quick to correct this comparison.

"The motivations down there are somewhat different and partly driven by O&G wanting to avoid decommissioning costs.  Furthermore, site selection was purely based on O&G resources, not environmental criteria or suitability for fish," Goudey wrote.

I plan to reach out to Cape Wind proponents who plan to build a wind farm in Nantucket Sound and find out if any similar proposals have come out of the recent final public comment part of the project. 

Stay tuned.