Aquaculture site selection Report

Report on potential, selected sites for offshore aquaculture along the Spanish, Norwegian and Irish Atlantic coasts. European policy intends to expand the space available to aquaculture by cultivating sites that are offshore. This presents challenges in terms of building structures e.g. fish cages that withstand the effects of offshore weather conditions along the Atlantic coast. In order to establish possible future sites for offshore aquaculture production we intend to gather relevant wave, current velocity and water column structure measurements from the coasts of Ireland, Norway and Spain and use these data to validate site assessment models at ca. 200 m horizontal resolution of the potential new offshore aquaculture sites. This will result in a generic tool based on in-situ observations and model output over a hindcast period, coupled to existing site decision tools, so that potential license applicants can pinpoint sites for further exploration and site investigation.