Chilean aquaculture technology firm Aquarov is looking to put submersible remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to use in oxygenating environmentally affected seabeds at fish farming centers.
The innovative system pumps seawater through a generator where it is injected with oxygen and pumped through a hose that is transported by the ROV to the farming center’s seabed. The system “is capable of generating nanobubbles of superior quality and adequate volume, with an injection of up to 4 cubic meters per hour of water rich in oxygen nanoparticles. In addition to the recovery of the seabed, it can be useful to oxygenate the water column of the fish, which is very important for salmon farming in Chile,” Aquarov Head of Engineering Eduardo García told local publication SalmonExpert.
Aquarov’s patented underwater robot has environmental and georeferencing sensors, a camera, a thruster, and an altimeter to maintain the appropriate distance from the seabed being treated with the application of nanobubbles. Technical personnel also remotely monitor the information coming from video, sonar, and georeferenced data.
The company is currently performing tests at an abandoned anoxic salmon farming center located near Chile’s Universidad Austral in the Aysén region, where preliminary results have shown that the seabed’s oxygen level increased 2 percent after eight hours of nanobubble treatment, García was quoted as saying.
The goal behind the testing is two-fold: Gaining authorization to operate from the Undersecretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture (Subpesca), and providing evidence to fish farming companies throughout Chile regarding the effectiveness of seabed recovery, he noted.
The Aquarov executive estimated that remediation at fish farming centers could take two to six months on average, depending on conditions.
