AN aquaculture expert will tell a key conference this week that the offshore oil and gas sector should seriously consider whether redundant production platforms could be used for fish farming activity.

Donal Maguire, aquaculture development manager for the Irish Sea Fisheries Board (BIM) will give a key address at this week’s Aquaculture Today 2005 conference in Edinburgh, organised by Fish Farmer magazine.

He believes fish farming, currently mostly in loch or coastal areas, will have to move further out to sea in future due to a shortage of remaining locations in inshore waters.

He pointed out that many offshore oil and gas locations will become redundant over the next three decades as the UK’s reserves decline and converting some platforms for fish farm use could be cheaper than providing new cages for use in locations far out to sea.

Contact had already been made with some oil companies, he disclosed.

Mr Maguire said: “We would not like to tie the development of offshore aquaculture necessarily to redundant oil structures. However, it is worth the oil industry’s while taking a look at the concept.

“You may be cheaper having a ship which comes and goes offshore rather than using a fixed platform, but do not forget that in 20 to 30 years, huge parts of the North Sea oilfield will run out and there will be a lot of redundant structures.”

He went on: “There is no doubt that the cost of maintaining rigs, keeping them painted and keeping anodes on them to prevent rusting is high, but there are already two projects in US waters, one in California and one in the Gulf of Mexico.

“At the moment they are piggy-backing on existing oil operations, and seeing how thing work out. The fish species involved are tropical warm

water species including red drum.

“But in some circumstances, some smaller platforms may well be in the right place for a fish farm and are cheaper.”

In the US, the Bush administration seems to be changing its mind on letting oil platforms be used for aquaculture, it was disclosed earlier this month. Thousands of oil and natural gas platforms in the Gulf of Mexico could be converted into deep-sea fish farms raising red snapper, mahi mahi, yellow fin tuna and flounder, under a plan backed by the Bush administration.

Mr Maguire will be making his presentation of the first day of the UK’s premier aquaculture conference, Aquaculture Today 2005.

The conference, organised by Fish Farmer magazine, is being held at the Edinburgh Marriott hotel on the 13th and 14th of April.

More than 180 speakers and delegates will be present at the conference, to be opened by Scottish Executive aquaculture minister Lewis Macdonald on Wednesday the 13th of April.

Aquaculture Today is being organised by Marine Division, part of Special Publications which produces the leading trade magazines for the seafood industry.

· Production of Scottish aquaculture products is worth more than £500m a year, according to Scottish Executive figures, and now accounts for around half of all Scottish food exports.

· Aquaculture supports just under 2,000 jobs directly in Scotland, with another 4-5000 jobs partly reliant on the industry.

· 1500 jobs in the Scottish Highlands are entirely dependent on fish, shellfish and seaweed farming, with another 3,750 positions supported by the industry.

· According to estimates from the Food and Agriculture Organisation, environmental concerns surrounding marine populations in the wild means that aquaculture will become the prime source of seafood for the world’s consumers by 2020.

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