| dc.description.abstract | The world’s population is ever growing. As our population grows, so does the demand for food. The United Nations predicts that humanity will require an increase of 50% in our food production by 2050, to feed an additional 2.5 billion people. Therefore, humanity must find solutions to increase our food production.
One such solution is to be found in our oceans. 71% of the earth’s surface is covered in water, but it currently only supplies of 2% the world’s food, on a caloric basis . Fishing of wild animals has been done by humans on a large scale for centuries, but this is utilizing the ocean far below its potential. Raising fish in our oceans similarly to how one would raise livestock is far more effective and yields much larger volumes while using less space as opposed to wild fishing. The umbrella term for such production is aquaculture, and it is the way forward to supply food from our oceans.
Current fish farming is done exclusively near shore. That leaves the vast majority of oceans unutilized. There is clearly much unused potential here, if one can overcome the challenges associated with it.
This is why Roxel Aqua decided to develop “Octopus”. A decommissioned oil rig is repurposed to be used as a fish farm. The oil rig is the central hub, with facilities for feeding, de-lousing, housing and more. Several net pens are placed around it in the ocean, where the fish is raised. “Octopus” can also winch the net pens further down in the ocean to reduce the effect of currents, waves, lice, and algae. This configuration enables the fish farm to be placed in areas offshore, in much harsher environments than current salmon farming facilities. This opens a whole new area of oceans for fish farming.
In order to find where it would be most suitable to place “Octopus”, a PESTEL analysis is used as a decision tool to assess the factors that could affect the operation.
Through the use of the PESTEL analysis, this thesis found that out of Canada, The USA, Chile, New Zealand, and Tasmania (Australia), the most suitable locations are New Zealand and Tasmania. This is due to their optimal environment, their sustainable and rapidly growing salmon farming industry, their governments’ support of their respective aquaculture industries, and their commitment to expanding into offshore salmon farming. | |