Aqua-Sphere®

Changing the Way Seafood is Raised

ABI is on the cusp of revolutionizing technology for the aquaculture industry with its advanced, patent-pending, Aqua-Sphere® system. Aqua-Sphere® is an innovative, floating, semi-rigid containment system for intensive aquaculture production. The system features the world’s only jointed, articulating floating tank. This disruptive technology was designed to provide an eco-friendly, energy efficient alternative to self-polluting cages and net pens. We are changing the way seafood is being raised.

An Evolution in Eco-friendly Production

A few of the many technological innovations of the Aqua-Sphere® system include:

• Jointed tank technology – absorbs wave and wind impact
• Solid waste recovery system – sustainable, non-polluting production
• Energy efficient air-lift pumping system – cost effective operations
• Uses alternative energy power – Clean and green
• Patent-pending inter-tank fish transport system – Stress-free fish transport
• Remote monitoring system – security
• Solar-powered automatic feeding system – reduces manpower

Aqua-Sphere® is the way seafood will be produced in the future. Fully integrated and environmentally compliant, the Aqua-Sphere® provides an ideal habitat for production of a wide variety of seafood products in salt and freshwater, as well as warm and coldwater. Aqua-Spheres® will be manufactured in a variety of sizes to accommodate large scale commercial production down to small-scale private farming.

Aqua-Sphere® is a complete floating fish production system whose nucleus is the world’s first jointed tank. Aqua-Spheres® are available in a variety of sizes ranging from 30 feet to 60 feet in diameter, and all components are modular in design and can be easily assembled on-site. Every Aqua-Sphere® may be interconnected with patent-pending flexible pipe corridors which allow fish to be moved from one tank to another without handling. This reduces stress, abrasion, disease and mortality from transport. Each Aqua-Sphere® is connected to a flexible floating working platform that allows easy access to all tanks, provides secondary floatation and storage, and is anchored to the bottom. Primary floatation of each Aqua-Sphere® is accomplished through a unique, patent pending, self-regulating, air injection, floatation system incorporated into the walls of each tank. The double-walled construction provides maximum durability and protection.

The Aqua-Sphere® functions as both a nursery and grow-out production system, eliminating the need for costly land-based hatchery systems. With net pen systems that necessitate larger fish for initial stocking, these land based operation significantly increase production costs. With Aqua-Sphere®, fish can now be stocked at significantly smaller sizes, thereby saving on fingerling, labor, and transportation costs.

Shipping and transportation are simple and cost effective. Aqua-Sphere’s® modular design, high-impact polyethylene, and articulating joints, allow for ease of use in a variety of settings, and with a variety of fish species. Aqua-Sphere® is manufactured to withstand environmental stressors without compromising the efficiency and efficacy of waste collection.

Aqua-Sphere's® circular design provides the perfect environment for successful and rapid fish growth, while creating a natural flow of solids to the patent pending solid waste removal system. In this device, waste is automatically concentrated in preparation for usage. Recycling of wastes can be through an integrated anaerobic digester, hydroponics, or pelletization for fertilizers. ABI’s integrated approach leaves nothing to waste!

Fish feed voraciously in the clean, well oxygenated water of the Aqua-Sphere®

Aqua-Sphere® provides security to the farmer in a number of ways. The farmer no longer has to be concerned with tears or holes in netting where fish escape and predators enter. Aqua-Sphere® can easily be closed off from the exterior environment to isolate the fish from adverse environmental situations for example anoxic conditions due to lake inversion, toxic algae blooms, for disease treatment, etc.

Second and third generation systems are already in design for shellfish, flatfish, and seaweed production.

The paradigm shift has begun ! U.S and Canadian legislation and advisory groups have already started to call for the elimination of net pens for fish production. Aqua-Sphere® technology serves as an economically and environmentally superior alternative to currently available cages and net pens.

Environmental Necessity Influences Change

Cages and net pens have been around for thousands of years. A simplistic method of confining fish in an open body of water, these systems allow waste and pollutants to readily flow into the environment. They also attract a host of predators that can stress, kill, and allow escapement of the crop, as well as damage the system. Net pens/cages exist in a variety of different sizes and shapes, with some that float and others that submerge, however they all have the same problems.