Atlantian Piercer (Seasteading Ship Concept)

Here is another concept for a boat...but this time completely abandoning the idea of speed in benefit of leisure and income.

I figured what if you could make money off a liveaboard situation? Instead of it just being a slow drain as you throw money into something slowly degrading.





Essentially it is a small steel hull piercing straight down into the water with a larger living area being supported up top .....a bobber. (the bulb at the bottom could be used as a bedroom or media room or something of that sort to get a view of the fish, the neck of the bulb being 4-5', which is enough to fit a spiral stairs)

To stabilize it there is a floating ring it is solidly welded to and an extending ball as a keel (the keel could be run up an internal sleeve running up the bulb at the bottom to retract it, wenching it up from the very top of the central structure).

But then a ring of modular floating wave-breakers could be strung around the entire ship ....and anchored to the center with ropes or chain (the same way a bicycle wheel works, tension not compression)

From the ring would be the netting leading down to a smaller net ring (or, more likely, an octagonal ring or something else fabricated from straight smaller pieces)....finally all attached to the sphere at the bottom of the keel.

Essentially it is creating a livable offshore aquaculture farm. Not made to zip around or sail the world, but instead a place to live and anchor nearish land (with the option of moving it short distances with electric...especially since harvesting electric would be vital for the living areas to run everything in a sustainable way).

While living there you would take care of the fish being grown and every so often have an income boost from the harvest. If you want to farm more, just extend the furthest ring out more (or add a 3rd ring of modular floating wave breaks).

Anyhow, thoughts?

 

Like this ? World's first 'offshore' aquaculture development project receives green light from Norwegian government - Kongsberg Maritime https://www.km.kongsberg.com/ks/web/nokbg0238.nsf/AllWeb/7C0B0102D79C3321C1257F8C00219350?OpenDocument

 

Offshore Aquaculture is not without its problems
"The cost of treating the fish parasite has risen roughly 50% in 2015 from about NOK 3 billion in 2014, mainly due to more expensive treatments, according to Audun Iversen, a Norwegian Food Research Institute (Nofima) scientist. That represents an average sea lice treatment cost of about NOK 4 per kilo in 2015, with some producers paying up to NOK 12 per kilo. The figure does not take into account costs related to low growth and poorer feed conversion ratio. "
Sustainable Fish Farming Solutions: From Feed to Egg http://www.norwayexports.no/sectors/articles/sustainable-fish-farming-solutions-from-feed-to-egg/

 

I struggle with the idea of giving up the principle reasons boats are enjoyable - for me, sailing, exploring, new destinations - for others perhaps speed, exhilaration, and so forth, to live on a fish farm with difficult access to the shore. As a leisure activity, we put up with the discomfort of boating because it has other joys; I'm not sure I would want to give those up for the dubious benefits of leisure fish farming. I have friends who work on fish farms, and it can be arduous, less than pleasant, and repetitive, in all weather conditions. Returning to shore at the end of the commercial working day can be a relief.

 

That's very interesting. Pretty much like that just scaled down to something a couple or small family could do / afford (along with some luxury features, such as an underwater bedroom with a view of the fish).

I agree. Farming would give an income stream, but if a person doesn't really need money....then it is just extra work and sacrificing a lot of mobility.

 

I wonder where they get all the feed. IIRC salmon are strictly meat(fish) eaters. Are they also using other fishing boats to strip-mine ocean of bait fish to process into feed? I hear Factory Ships that make things like Fish Sticks have massive wasted "by catch" of all the fish they net that they don't want. Maybe they could save that for salmon-feed.

Swedish buddy said his (nasty but well paying) job in Sweden (before defecting to USA to avoid Swedish Army service LOL) was some industrial protein plant where they reduced all sorts of nasty garbage into basic protein, then added to all sorts of things like animal feed.

Nice these Norwegians are so eager to create complex easy-to-fail-systems to provide food for another 4 billion unwanted people. Getting closer every day.

Sounds like they are breeding treatment-resistant super-sea-lice. Maybe the new super-lice will crash fish stocks world wide.

 

Cheerfully isolated and private..... Rather like Alcatraz.... or St Helena, or Elba,...... if you are a Parisite.

 

Onshore as well, some farms have been tried in the Florida Keys, but quickly ran out of working capital.

 

Any kind of animal "husbandry" is more like slavery than a lot of people can handle today. It is a 365.24 day per year job, forever. Unless you can get someone to work in rotation with you... Most farmed animals (including fish) need to be fed and tended every single day, usually multiple times a day.

 

Fish farming (especially of Atlantic salmon) is a job for skilled professionals. It's expensive and technically complex. You need 5 or 10 farms (in different locations) to have semi-regular cashflow.

 

You know what this might do well is oyster or mussel farming.

I mean sure, it's not a conventional boat per se so if you look at it in terms of a pleasure cruise it's not going to be popular.

But I have a home on an off-grid island and I have it precisely because it's remote. The handful of other people there are also there to be alone. But people struggle to find income in these places.

There is a subset of people for whom seasteading is itself really appealing and to my way of thinking, shellfish aquaculture is a pretty good bet for how to earn an income doing it. Would you get rich? Probably not. But I know more than a few people who just like being on their own, on the sea, and maintaining just enough of a business to keep going.