Unreasonable oceanic plant superfarm

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by Kerk, Jun 23, 2016.

  1. waikikin
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    waikikin Senior Member

    That could be a plan, like pirate radio/the boat that rocked but with insane hydro weed, poppies, shrooms etc just a sail away. Would need some NUC lights & shapes though if the farmers were smoking the profits though:rolleyes:
     
  2. Squidly-Diddly
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    Squidly-Diddly Senior Member

    I bet salt spray would cripple any normal food plants.

    Even is a green house you need to exchange air and I'm guessing salt would always be an issue.
     
  3. mydauphin
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    mydauphin Senior Member

    If it floats it can sink, flip, get awash and needs lots of maintenance. Like everyone said grow it ashore. Only thing the grows in ocean is seafood. Though I grow basil and some veggies in my garden on the boat, they require constant care, fresh water every day or the salt kills them. I think it might be easier to grow your weed underwater, but then you need electricity for UV.
     
  4. sigurd
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    sigurd Pompuous Pangolin

    I guess maybe some people take issue with seeing how almost everything that was once baeutiful nature full of diversity being reduced to industry, the other people think we should just take more land until we run out of it, and then they will be dead anyway so don't care what comes after.

    There were structures built from the calcium in the seawater, assembled by means of current through anodes and cathodes. You'd start with a metal skeleton, and use the current to let calcium deposit on it. It was said to be stronger than concrete. I imagine maintenance consists of plugging in the current for a while and let cracks fill with new calcium? I think they called it seacrete and made some artificial reefs with it.

    I have thought that several smaller rafts is one way to go, hexagonal maybe, with lots of tyres between them?
     
  5. rwatson
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    rwatson Senior Member

    I was working on genetically engineered giant clams for a long time to get huge calcium hulls, but then I found out how much plastic of all sizes was in the saltwater, so I am concentrating on engineering huge recycled structeres welded together with solar power in the tropical zones of the Pacific Ocean.

    The first structure will be available in the next 6 months. You can buy shares if you message me privately :)


    http://io9.gizmodo.com/5927543/10-structures-that-could-allow-humans-to-live-on-the-ocean
     

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  6. kerosene
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    kerosene Senior Member

    Totally worth an indiegogo campaign. They actually allow scams so you could cash in nicely.
     
  7. waikikin
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    waikikin Senior Member

    On the right track there, these are "off the plan" sales... all you need is a couple of drones cnc/gps controlled to fly with get out big magnifying glasses that concentrate beams of solar radiation onto the freely available floating plastic & therefore 3D print the fabulous floating farm resort style living into the realm... Well done RW... send your deposits to!
    J.
     
  8. Kerk
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    Kerk New Member

    I studied this in an Aztec history class I took last year, seems like a great idea but would make this build that much more expensive, and I'm not sure of how well it works with saltwater and have been unable to find much more information on it.


    A few have pointed out that this would not financially viable to ship this food, that would definitely make this seem like a pointless project. The idea though, is to have food and resources available at this location in the middle of the ocean, the profit would be from people coming top visit.

    I was also under the impression that in international waters, you could do pretty much whatever you want as long as the UN is okay with it. Countries only have territorial rights 200 miles from their coastline.

    You are correct about the maintenance issue, there are a lot of variables that require a lot of upkeep. I came here to get advice on maximizing longevity! However I do believe if built properly, this will be a strong and not depreciating asset.

    This is a very real issue. Perhaps we could make the greenhouses close sided and an air intake with a filter, allow the heat to rise out the top? This would be another factor adding upkeep. Any more ideas on this?

    I haven't heard of this, that's a good idea and could reduce costs. I feel like some sort of solar array could power that while the walls build.

    I was thinking several smaller rafts for a while too, but in stormy season, I could see that increasing the likelihood of flips or wrecks.
     
  9. Kerk
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    Kerk New Member

    Another one of my unreasonable large scale ideas, a mid ocean desalinization plant.
     
  10. Rurudyne
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    Rurudyne Senior Member

    Kerk, if it's in salt water it wouldn't be the chinampa system which was predicated on shallow fresh water. That system was also pretty cheap precisely because of the shallow water aspect. It might be replicated within a large tanker-barge-style barge (ferrocement?) with greenhouses over the holds (though that might not work at sea).

    As you know every extra challenge is going to drive up cost or engineering in some way. Over salt water or deep water are just two of those complication.

    Have you considered taking an essentially closed regenerating system, as a fresh water farm floating on a salt water body must be, to a very different environment where the issues with salt water and floating are gone? I'm speaking of arid lands, up to but not including deserts where there's sand blowing about.

    There is a kind of indoor farming that also uses harvestable fish to help clean the runoff water that comes pretty close to a regenerating system without a lot of expense ... and arid land isn't going to be terribly expensive compared to arable. As a bonus there's often plenty of sunlight to garner for solar power after some fashion. A semi-buried structure would be easier to maintain at a constant temperature.
     

  11. mydauphin
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    mydauphin Senior Member

    Rwatson, there are a million sunk ships on the. Bottom of the seas. If you lend me a few of those giant clam shells, we can use them as airbags and refloat the ships then we have a navy to protect the floating pot farm
     
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