My vertical underwater farming can restore the seas

[Judi Lynn]

26 April 2017

Bren Smith’s award-winning 3D ocean farms can produce 30 tonnes of sea vegetables and 250,000 shellfish in an acre every five months - and boost biodiversity


By Erica Cirino

You have pioneered the idea of farming within the ocean’s water column. What inspired you?

I’m not a scientist, I’m not an engineer, I’m not an oceanographer – I’m just a regular guy who grew up in a small fishing village and dropped out of high school. After more than 30 years travelling the world catching all kinds of fish, I couldn’t deny the damage commercial fishing causes. I decided to learn to work with the ocean, not against it.

What did you do in response to seeing this damage from commercial fishing?

First, I went from ocean fishing to ocean farming: for seven years or so, I grew oysters on my coastal farm. But when the storm surges of hurricanes Sandy and Irene hit, my farms were completely wiped out. I realised I had to rethink my farm design. That’s when I developed the 3D ocean farming model, which involves more flexible infrastructure that’s better able to withstand storms and less expensive to replace if it does get ruined.



More:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23431230-900-fish-extinctions-not-if-i-can-kelp-it/?utm_campaign=webpush&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=ILC&campaign_id=ILC%7CNSNS%7C2016-GLOBAL-webpush-feed

[msongs]

1. link requires signing up and logging in nt

[klook]

2. Here's a good article about this operation, from the Hartford Courant

a year ago:
http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-vertical-ocean-farming-20160328-story.html

[OnlinePoker]

3. Here's a link to their actual website

http://greenwave.org/3d-ocean-farming/

[d_r]

4. I thought this said

"My vertical underwear"

[Yo_Mama]

5. I wanted to thank everyone who posted links in this thread!

I learned a lot. It's really appreciated.

[lunatica]

6. What about predation? Isn't it necessary?

I like the idea though and I think skyscraper vertical farming is coming in the future.

[emmadoggy]

7. My brain mis-read the headline as:

"My vertical underwear farming..."

Had to do a double-back on that one!