WTOP – A Baltimore-based company Solar Oysters LLC is building barges powered by solar energy that take up significantly less space in the water than typical aquaculture facilities, which can spread acres wide on the bottom of rivers and the Chesapeake Bay.
Mark Rice, a manager at Solar Oysters LLC, which has been testing production on smaller barges in the waters near Solomons Island said he hopes by 2022 that, “we are producing 2.4 million oyster in a spot of water that’s 90 by 53 feet.”
Instead of using cages at the bottom of the water, the barges work vertically.
The machines rotating the cages are powered by solar panels placed on each barge. Every other day, those oyster-filled cages are power-washed clean.
“By hanging oysters in the water column, we expose them to clean water, more oxygen, better salinity and more food sources,” Rice said.
Each barge grows the oysters from the 10 spat on a shell until each oyster is about half an inch wide.
In the coming months, the company is expecting to build barges with 20-by-20-foot platforms (which grows about 300,000 oysters).
WOW, amazing! And what will this to do the “seaside – bay side argument?
hmmmmm……solar panels and a solely electric barge sitting in the salt water. A disaster waiting to happen ? Is it made from stainless steel ? Lifespan ? Cost ? At current market prices, how many millions of oyster sales does it take to recover investment money ? All things I can’t discover by visiting their website. I’d guess several PHD’s created this by acquiring Grant Monies ( so it was free to them ) and suspect it’s a nice idea that can’t compete in the market place. Please prove me wrong.
I just had to go back and take a 2nd look at this project for solar powered oyster work. I certainly stand by my earlier comments. This press release looks down on off bottom floats for no reason at all, and misleads the reader as to the size of the area needed for comparable growout. Visit their website and you get more info. Here they speak about the size of a float that only allows for oysters to reach 1/2″. Go to their website and look at the design of the current floats they are experimenting with. It is nothing at all like the artists rendering on the CCM page. That is much larger. They talk like our local oystermen are dummies and aren’t already doing what this barge will be in place to do. Some oyster growers are already using barges like this to raise their nursery stock. They just aren’t solar powered. Off bottom trays or (Jakie) Taylor floats are also placed in clean water with plenty of oxygen in the water. The oysters are exposed to better salinity and more food resources ? Well, in the bay the way to get a higher salinity is to locate the barge near a main channel. Which means the barge may very well now become an impediment to navigation where more people travel faster and fish. While the actual “footprint” of the barge may be 90′ x 53′, the moorings and all will make it necessary for the barge to actually take up quite a bit more room. And this is for a barge bringing oysters to the 1/2″ size. Fewer oysters can be in bags that will be growing out to a 3″ market size. The machinery (electric motors) have to get bigger and stronger to handle the weight of the oyster bags. Which means more solar panels. Those panels will not lay flat all day, and will turn that barge into a tied down sailboat of serious weight. Do you have any seagulls on your dock ? How much efficiency will these solar panel perches for seagulls lose out there ? Can you picture them painted with, well I’ll leave those words to Scotiagirl. The barges will have to get bigger to handle a large volume of 3″ market sized oysters. Oyster aquaculture always has to take place in the proper food column or it does not work. Just what do they think the locals are already doing ? So these guys are no smarter than our local growers. Maybe not even 1/2 as smart. I, for one, don’t want barges out in the main waterways. These guys talk like trays on the bottom are in the way and unsightly off to the side in shallow water, but a barge out near a channel is better ? I don’t believe their solar power will handle the weight of constantly moving heavy bags of oysters. I also believe there may be a high occurrence of the nav lights failing at night and the barge becoming a menace to navigation. Then toss in the fact that these barges will cost BIG MONEY. All that aluminum or stainless steel in the construction of the rigging, and solar panels ? How big a boat do you need to move the barges around ? What does that kind of mmorring cost ? Insurance in case the barge breaks free ? Just how can anyone absorb all that expense into an oyster operation ? It looks like a pipe dream to me. Nice idea, but the practical application looks kinda like a green new deal ?
Looks like that if these monsters come into widespread use there will need be to be yet another chapter written for inclusion into Ian Urbina’s “The Outlaw Ocean”.
Familiar with it? Some of Scotiagirl’s people took issue with parts of it and, yes, Irvine is an “investigative reporter” for the NYT (a liberal to the core). Still, Scotiagirl’s eyes were opened to many issues. Damn, the oceans are BIG!
I have yet to read this book. Excerpts at Amazon look interesting. Author appears talented with phrasing so as to hold my attention. I hope to read your copy.
“Ian” not “Irvine”. Damn this Kindle, so often it changes Scotiagirl’s words. Recently however it has been quite adept at letting Scotiagirl’s meaning(s) slide through and that is promising to her.. Yes of course you can read her copy! (Kindle does double entendre too!)
“Ian” not “Irvine”. Damn this Kindle, so often it changes Scotiagirl’s words. Recently however it has been quite adept at letting Scotiagirl’s meaning(s) slide through and that is promising to her.. Yes of course you can read her copy! (Kindle does double entendre too!)
Well Scotiagirl, a few decades ago I caught some glimpses of a short skirt in a green Triumph. That was somewhere between Russian River and Point Reyes, but she was as elusive as a R. McGuinn story about a Chestnut Mare. Go ahead and tell me that was YOU !! LOL ! Just a little fun there, but these days a smart man knows a long skirt on a cool night is just as hot as a short one. For now the latest tale is that there will be pipes n drums at the corner of the beach and Mason on Tuesday at sundown. They’re gonna head east until they hang their usual Larry so they can tear up the face of their not so beloved p.m. You know how they believe it’s time to fill yer boots and show there’s no risk to it. It’s their favorite pastime. I’ve a feeling the town is in for a quiet surprise.
XK-E. british racing green
Don’t forget to look for the book tomorrow.