Fish containment
Net integrity and fish containment
At Open Blue, we work hard to prevent any fish released from our farms. This is an important effort, not only because the safe protection of the farm stock is integral to the viability of our business, but also because of any potential environmental concerns.
Today’s Open Blue SeaStation technology is constructed to such a high standard that it is rare for equipment failures to occur. The containment netting of the SeaStation is made of semi-rigid filament mesh netting with a tensile strength of 35kN/m2 that cannot be severed by sharks or collapsed by marine mammals.
Our divers inspect the integrity of the netting daily and keep a record of any net issues. If an incident occurs, we make an inventory adjustment following the finding of any holes and diver observations.
Once the harvest is completed, we reconcile the harvested fish with potential escapes.
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This report describes the escape of fish from the Open Blue open-ocean aquaculture site located approximately 8 miles offshore of the town of Miramar, Panama, in the Caribbean Sea.
All of the lost fish described in this report are cobia (Rachycentron canadum). Cobia are native to the Caribbean coast of Panama. These fish were not genetically modified in any way and had no unusual health problems or diseases. All of the fish lost in these escapes were sexually immature juveniles. None of the fish discussed in this report were recovered.
In the period from September 2020 to August 2021, we saw a cumulative variation of 2,63% between the number of fish stocked, minus the number of fish harvested, and minus the amount of mortality. This has been reported to the government of Panama.
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In the period from September 2023 to August 2024, we saw a cumulative variation of 3% between the number of fish stocked, minus the number of fish harvested, and minus the amount of mortality
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