Transcript – The Aquaculture Innovation and Market Access Program in Eastern Quebec: Mechanized Washer for Buoys

In mariculture, long lines are suspended from buoys in the water. Over time, the buoys become covered with various marine organisms. The buoys are cleaned by hand with scrapers, which slows down operations on vessels. The Aquaculture Innovation and Market Access Program (AIMAP) has funded an innovative project to facilitate buoy cleaning: a mechanized buoy washer.

Caption: Sylvain Lafrance Director General Société de développement de l’industrie maricole inc. (SODIM)

This projects aims to reduce repetitive movements on vessels. It started around 2005 and various prototypes have been constructed.

One prototype, which used a system of pressure jets, proved ineffective.

A brush system was then tried. The winning solution was ultimately the concept that is now used—

a system of steel cables held in place with springs. It is the pressure exerted on the buoy that enables it to be washed when it moves through a tunnel approximately 36 inches long. In my opinion, this project has worked very well.

Today, companies use the buoy washer for their regular operations. According to our calculations, we have been able to reduce the cleaning time for buoys by approximately fourfold.

When a company washes between twelve and fifteen thousand buoys every year, the result has a very positive effect on operations.

Étienne Dufresne, Moules de Gaspé, in the Gaspé Bay, in the Gaspé Peninsula.

Caption : Étienne Dufresne Moules de Gaspé

Moules de Gaspé has been in production since 1994. It mainly has mussel culture lines but also has a few scallop culture lines.

The advantage of the washer is that we can clean many buoys a day. This prevents a lot of tendonitis and exertion.

It doesn’t wash them one hundred percent – you have to do a bit of polishing up – but it eliminates at least eighty percent of the work done on a vessel.

Caption: Sylvain Lafrance Director General SODIM

This project cost around thirty thousand dollars, all partners included, and we received about five thousand dollars from the AIMAP to carry it out.

The equipment developed can be used wherever long lines and buoys are used for culture purposes. You simply have to contact SODIM to get the information to order the equipment.

Caption: Sylvain Lafrance Director General SODIM

One of the priorities now, as far as Quebec mariculture is concerned, is to improve company productivity, which means optimizing operations on vessels.

The AIMAP is a program specifically focusing on innovation so, for us, it has really been a major partner in the last few years in contributing to the progress of Quebec mariculture.