Abstract
Open Blue Sea Farms is a commercial aquaculture operation that has been focused on the production of cobia, Rachycentron canadum, a tropical marine finfish, since the company’s inception in 2007. Operating on the Caribbean coast of Panama since 2009, Open Blue has developed into one of the pioneers of offshore aquaculture. A company with primary goals of sustainability and full vertical integration, until recently Open Blue operated utilizing the outdated infrastructure of a hatchery in Puerto Lindo, Panama, with additional support from the University of Miami Experimental Hatchery.
Due to the increase costs associated with operating aquaculture offshore, the only way such a visionary company like Open Blue could become competitive is through economies of scale and vertical integration. Open Blue’s projected scale-up production demand required the construction of a larger hatchery that would be custom built from the ground up. The advent of offshore aquaculture is still a relatively new venture and the hatcheries that supply these offshore farms, while not fundamentally different, nevertheless vary slightly in some aspects. This paper details the creation of Open Blue’s Viento Frio Hatchery from the planning and design phase through construction and finally the commissioning and operation of the site. The completion of the Viento Frio hatchery was an important step for Open Blue to achieve the production scale required for an offshore aquaculture firm to become economically viable. The hatchery is now complete and in full operation and this report describes all steps of project development, from its inception to the operational stage.