Credit: Huseyn Ek (Akuakare, Turkey)
The photos shows typical off-shore cages use to grow variety of fish species including gilthead seabream, European seabass, trout, meagre, carp, tilapia, and sturgeon. As expected, cage productivity and growing seasons should vary according to farmed species whereas average productivity could be 10-12 kg/m3 for seabream, seabass and trout increasing to 20-30 kg/m3 for tilapia and carp. The length of the growing season also varies from as short as 6 months for tilapia and trout, increasing to 12-18 months in regard to seabream and seabass, then 16-24 months for carp while 3-4 years will be required for sturgeon. One of the photos shows a feeding barge that automatically supplies individual cages with their specific feeding rates.