Increased Emergency Preparedness in Coastal Aquaculture

Abstract

Aquaculture is an industry that has developed rapidly over the past decades. Despite several hazards in the operations, emergency preparedness is not at the same level as in the rest of the maritime industry. This paper highlights some possibilities to increase the aquaculture industry’s coastal emergency preparedness. This paper is the result of the innovation project “Coastal Emergency Preparedness” funded by the Norwegian Research Council and industry partners. The aquaculture industry must establish its own emergency preparedness. In this paper, the innovation of a fleet of emergency preparedness vessels along the coastline, which could fill the gaps in emergency preparedness, is presented. The vessels would be of varied sizes, with different equipment and response times, and could assist the aquaculture industry during local incidents or large-scale ones, such as algae blooms or winter storms, that affect many sites at the same time. Each production zone would need its own dedicated fleet due to biosecurity regulations. The emergency preparedness vessel fleet would be led by an on-scene commander. The fleet would deal with oil spills and tasks such as emergency towing, firefighting, rescue of people, recapturing of fish, silage making, algae detection, and diving missions. With such a vessel fleet, small and large aquaculture companies could increase their emergency preparedness with a common strategy and shared resources.