SBIR Phase II: Development of On-Land, Closed Containment Integrated Multitrophic Sustainable Aquaculture by means of Ecological Diversity.

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project will demonstrate an entirely new approach to farming seafood. To date only a limited amount of marine aquaculture on-land and indoors is carried out anywhere utilizing a technology requiring only saltwater, limited space and our novel zero waste approach,. This approach takes advantage of ecological principle whereby diverse aquatic species ? including fish, sandworms, algae, oysters, seaweed and more ? are cultured together in a cyclic system in a way that allows the waste from one to serve as nutrition for others. Because such facilities are not in the ocean, seafood culture will no longer be restricted by certain naturally ideal habitats, competition for space, strict environmental regulations, occasional pollution and hazardous weather. Indeed, they offer what may be the only technology able to satisfy the ever growing global demand for protein. The inputs required are sunlight for the plants and feed, but even the latter can be cultured either internally or derived from ever-present, external waste streams. The approach is commercially attractive, too, especially when combined with alternative energy sources. Being modular, the first unit can be readily emulated everywhere. The proposed project seeks to break away from dependency on the oceans for seafood production sites and, of course, to do so in a manner that is economically viable. On-land production does offer challenges, many of which are overcome by farming diverse kinds of seafood together, a second break-away that confers health and generates byproduct revenues. To do so requires new farm designs, a grasp of each aquatic crop?s special needs and full understanding of how each interacts beneficially with others within the shared space and seawater. To achieve this so that the first full scale, commercial operation can be undertaken with confidence, it is deemed vital that a pilot plant be operated for not less than two years. Within that period, approximately ten forms of marketable marine plants and animals will be introduced. Health, growth and overall water quality will be carefully monitored. Special attention will be given to purely practical aspects of aquafarm management so that, when commercial, any reasonably capable farmer can manage the operation, guided by a computer model that, along with equipment design, will be a major deliverable of the research in addition to the proposed demonstration. From apparent complexity, simple commercial methods will emerge.