Abstract

Open Ocean Shellfish Mariculture Site Management and Biomass Prediction Tools
Track: Ocean, Coastal, and Marine Resources
Authors: Caitlyn Raines

While the U.S. mariculture industry has used geographic information systems (GIS) in its coastal ventures, the shift to open ocean creates a new set of spatial problems to address due to the remote nature of the sites. A GIS was developed for KZO Sea Farm's Catalina Sea Ranch, the first open ocean commercial aquaculture venture in the U.S. The GIS visualizes production and environmental conditions, including field flow, in 3D. It provides users with a planning tool for site visits which reduced time and cost on site. In addition, a tool was created within the GIS which predicts harvest windows using environment factors to determine expected growth rates. Using the GIS to apply modeled environmental conditions in analysis tools for the Catalina Sea Ranch allows users to better understand and capitalize on the dynamic nature of the site.