Evolution and performance of a single-point mooring for an offshore aquaculture cage

The mooring of aquaculture cages in sheltered-water environments has almost entirely made use of multiple mooring anchors creating an array that holds the cages in a fixed position. Open-ocean aquaculture ventures experience decreased user conflicts, improved water quality, and a lack of established practices that would otherwise constrain innovation from standard sheltered-water practices. Although intricate mooring designs are not necessary in the open ocean, challenges exist owing to the high-energy nature of open-ocean exposure and the need for cost-competitive approaches that offer commercially-viable alternatives to sheltered-water mooring systems. The Gulf of Mexico Offshore Aquaculture Consortium has developed a single-point mooring (SPM) system to moor an aquaculture cage 40 km offshore in the Gulf of Mexico in 25 m of water. The SPM evolved to its present configuration through several previous mooring iterations and lessons learned from each mooring attempt.