Structural Analysis of Open-Sea Submersible Spherical Fish Cage (OSSSFC)

The culture of fish in cages has become a practical and successful method in oceans to get a good yield in fish production without going to the deep sea. An Open-Sea Submersible Spherical Fish Cage (OSSSFC) system has been developed for deployment in the coastal waters to safeguard the cage during bad weather conditions. The submerged cages are built with HDPE struts with nets in a spherical shape, and they can be moved up and down in the water column. The OSSSFC floats on the sea surface during harvest time or maintenance period and submerges up to a maximum of 15-25m depth to reduce the impact of breaking waves by altering its buoyancy. The geodesic shape allows the cage to bear heavy loads due to waves and currents, and the system can be towed to different feasible locations as and when such a need arises. A variable ballast tank is used to change––– the system’s buoyancy so that the fish cage can either be surfaced or submerged. The cage is free to move vertically in a water column by adjusting the weight and the buoyancy.