Sea Grant people in news:
Thoroughgood, O'Neill, Clark in National Spotlight

Sea Grant leading national ocean aquaculture research program
New technology is being tested this summer in the Gulf of Mexico that will hopefully lead to the creation of a sustainable, environmentally friendly open ocean aquaculture industry. A team of researchers, government agencies and private companies - from nine states - make up the regional Gulf of Mexico Offshore Aquaculture Consortium (OAC) which is engaged in a multi-year research endeavor to test the waters of the Gulf for such an industry. The Gulf of Mexico project is part of a series of scientific research projects funded and coordinated by NOAA's National Sea Grant College Program 13 states and territories. In August the Gulf OAC, headquartered at the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium, will stock an aquaculture research cage with cobia that will reach market size in a year. It will be a unique home as their cage, located 25 miles off the coast of Pascagoula, Mississippi, tests the use of a single-point mooring system developed by researchers at MIT - the only one in the world used by an aquaculture operation.

The cage's single-point mooring, or SPM, has many advantages over the traditional "multi-line grid system" in the open ocean environment. It allows some movement, and reduces stress on the system, a helpful aspect in the rough waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The SPM also requires less space than the multi-line grid, an important factor in the busy Gulf region and for future leasing systems for offshore space. In addition, the sing
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Contact: Ben Sherman
sherman@nasw.org
202-662-7095
National Sea Grant College Program
22-Jul-2002