Shellfish aquaculture in the United States has been expanding rapidly; providing jobs, promoting local economies, and yielding sustainable protein sources for a continuously growing human population. However, industry growth is restricted due to several issues which all directly relate to being able to get the food (microalgae) to the shellfish in an efficient manner. The issue is not that there is not enough microalgae available in most coastal and nearshore waters, the problem is that relying on only natural water flow results in reduced flow when the shellfish are in gear, low stocking densities when bottom planting and therefore, high land use requirements, and what ends up being mostly backbreaking, low-pay manual labor. In order for the industry to continue to expand, the culture model must switch from a laborious, extensive method, to a safer, technologically-advanced technique which will allow for more product to be produced in a smaller footprint, with safer, higher-paying jobs as a result. The end result of the proposed research will be the developed technology, and a fully-functioning commercial-scale platform for a farm to produce a minimum of 1 million shellfish (oysters, bay scallops, etc.) from 1mm seed through market product all within a self-contained system covering only 88 m2. The new system will take advantage of commercially available technological solutions to monitor the farming conditions and send those data to the farmer in real-time. The system produced through this effort will be more efficient than standard shellfish aquaculture operations, resulting in safer working conditions, higher paying aquaculture jobs, and will allow for continued expansion of the industry into offshore waters in a manner which is environmentally sustainable. The production system produced through the proposed research will be immediately useful to the majority of shellfish farmers in the United States, and would not require additional skills, and in many cases, would not require any additional permits or leases, while greatly increasing efficiency, as well as survival and growth of the shellfish.
