Plant & Food Research joins Blue Economy CRC project

Plant & Food Research joins Blue Economy CRC project exploring the use of floating offshore platforms

Aqua Spa at Wedge Island. Image Courtesy of Tassal Group Limited

Plant & Food Research is a participant in a Blue Economy CRC Australia scoping study looking to review state-of-the-art multi-use floating offshore/high energy platform concepts and their application, aimed at supporting the development of a sustainable blue economy in Australia’s offshore/high energy industry.

For this project Plant & Food Research and partners, including Cawthron Institute in New Zealand, will review the use of multiple purpose offshore/high energy platforms for a range of uses – including supporting marine aquaculture, renewable energy installations and marine research facilities.

“This Australian scoping study fits with the work Plant & Food Research is doing around developing pioneering technology for open ocean aquaculture,” says Dr Suzy Black, Physiology and Post-harvest Science Team Leader at Plant & Food Research.

“Like Australia, Aotearoa New Zealand has an enormous ocean resource, and with a projected worldwide need for around 46m tonnes of extra seafood over the next decade, developing technologies that support open ocean aquaculture could bring enormous benefits,” Dr Black says.

The Blue Economy CRC is funded in part under the Australian Government’s CRC program administered by the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources and with 40 Participants from across the globe aims to deliver innovative solutions to transform the way Australia sustainably uses its oceans.

Plant & Food Research’s open ocean aquaculture direction is a multi-year science research project aimed at developing innovative technologies to support aquaculture in the open ocean.

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