Cyprus- Offshore Aquaculture Mooring Systems: Current Status and Future Development

Cyprus’ offshore aquaculture industry has promising prospects taking into account that Cyprus is an island. Its production trend is increasing overtaking bigger countries such Greece and Italy. However, current mooring systems seem to be under-performing acting as obstacles for its future development. Furthermore, shallow coastal waters scarcity due to competing industries dictates future development to come by moving further from shore exposing fish farms and subsequently mooring systems to harsher environmental loadings. It is, therefore, of paramount importance to design mooring systems based on engineering and scientific principles and leave behind the present “trial and error” methods. This paper presents the current state of Cyprus’ offshore aquaculture industry and focuses of its mooring designs by proposing a new methodology for designing more reliable systems, hence ensuring its future. Keywords—Environmental loadings, mooring systems design, numerical modeling, offshore aquaculture