New Shellfish Raft Designs
The current state of the art in deepwater shellfish aquaculture is to use rafts for the cultivation of shellfish such as oysters and mussels. Generally, these rafts have been built using the expertise and the materials readily available to the farmers. These materials include Styrofoam filled floats, wood, metal, and plastic components in any number of combinations and conditions. In the last few years, with particularly severe wind storms, it has become apparent that stronger rafts are needed as many rafts have broken up and been destroyed. Broken rafts not only create problems for the growers they also release debris that wash up on local beaches. This “garbage” or debris on beaches enflames the public and requires a lot of manpower to clean up and keep track of. The British Columbia Shellfish Growers Association (BCSGA) has made great strides to inform the public and clean up debris as quickly as possible. However, the elimination of as much debris as possible is the ultimate goal for both growers and the public.
The Centre for Shellfish Research in partnership with the BCSGA has received funding from the Aquaculture Innovation and Market Access Program (AIMAP) to develop a new raft design using current state-of-the-art materials and techniques.
Stakeholders and industry will provide their time and expertise in the design and implementation of this new raft as the technology will ultimately be transferred to local farmers. The goal of the new raft design is to improve economic profitability and environmental sustainability of the industry.