Design of a 20-Ton Capacity Finfish Aquaculture Feeding Buoy

A design for a 20-ton capacity buoy was developed to feed fish in four submerged cages at an exposed site south of the Isles of Shoals, New Hampshire, USA. The buoy was designed to contain all the equipment necessary to accomplish the feed dispensing tasks as well as have the strength and stability to remain on location in a variety of sea states. New feed handling and distribution systems were developed and tested. To evaluate seakeeping response a Froude scaled physical model was constructed and tested at the Ocean Engineering wave/tow tank at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). The mooring system was designed using the UNH developed finite element analysis program called Aqua-FE. The prototype buoy is now under construction, and is scheduled for deployment in late summer 2006