GAEL FORCE
CONTAINMENT SPECIAL
Moorings: top tips C
By Donnie Morrison, Gael Force
ontainment of stock is the most important thing for farm- ers of all types – be they involved in agriculture or aqua- culture. Aquaculture has obvious issues relating to con- tainment that are not prevalent in other types of farming – not least relating to weather, human error and the unpredictability of the sea. There is also the major drawback of not being able to see many possible problems before they manifest themselves as losses. It is therefore critical that all the stakeholders who are involved in the industry do as much as is possible to mitigate any risk at the outset. For moorings there are certain key factors that must be taken into account in order to do this.
1) It is particularly vital that all site conditions are available to the mooring designer, these should include:
• The prevailing weather conditions – preferably includ- ing the likely scale of a 50 year storm.
• Wave height information. • Maximum current over a reasonable period when strong tides would be expected.
• The maximum depth that the site will be deployed in. • The site configuration. • Depth of nets to be used. • Whether the use of wellboats should be factored in for the cage moorings. If so, boat spec is required.
2) Once all this information has been gathered and used in calculating the forces on the system then the designer should specify the components which match or exceed these calculated forces. At Gael Force we use a factor of safety of 4:1 when car- rying out these calculations, meaning that all components have an X4 safe working load.
Areas of responsibility
There are a number of key areas of responsibility that need to be identified: Grower/farmer
The farmer needs to ensure that the environmental and site conditions given are correct. Any deviation from this is notified to the designer/mooring supplier – ie if deeper nets are em- ployed, the site is moved, or extra cages added to the group.
Moorings designer/supplier
The design must be carried out correctly and the equipment within the system should be matched to the forces calculated. Hardware manufacturers
Ensure that all components supplied to the mooring company are tested and fit for the loadings and minimum breaks certified. Installers
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