In fisheries, the importance of designing efficient fish cages is being emphasized as aquaculture has become more production than capture fishing. Particularly, the gravity cage system is one of the popular fish cage system in Korea. Currently, gravity cages of various shapes and sizes are being widely designed and installed in offshore and inland seas. The cage is subject to external forces, such as currents and waves, and the shape of the structure and tension on the ropes changes according to these external forces. Thus, it is important to accurately calculate these dynamic behavior, including the external forces and tension on the structure during the design stage. In this study, three types of cage systems with an equal internal volume of 8000 m3 were analyzed using mass-spring models and their behavior was interpreted through simulations. These simulations were used to analyze the behavior and tension of the ropes in response to currents and waves to aid in the selection of individual cage sizes for a given total volume. The numerical calculation results indicate that depending on the flow rate, the most resistant system is System 1, which has eight strays, and System 2 and System 3 have 69.4% and 54.8% of the resistance of System 1. Further, total resistance increased as the number of cages increased for all flow rates.

Abalone (Haliotis discus hannai) is a shellfish that feeds on kelp and, as a product, it can often achieve a high market value. However, the dissolved oxygen (DO) levels in coastal waters in Korea have been negatively impacted by pollution from many anthropogenic sources. Herein, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software package was used to analyze the distribution of the DO concentration within an abalone containment structure. A finite volume approach was used to solve the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations combined with a k–ε turbulence model to describe the flow. The distribution of DO was determined within the control volume domain, and the transport equations of the pollutants were interpreted using a CFD model. The CFD analysis revealed that more than 60% and 30% of the relative oxygen concentration in one and two containers, respectively, was maintained when the flow acts along the six sheets of polyethylene plates. Therefore, it is clear that the abalone plate shelters should be placed parallel to the flow.

The sea cucumber, Apostichopus japonicus, is becoming an important aquaculture species in China, Japan and Korea. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the biological performance of a tubular type of subsurface cage for sea cucumber grow-out by in-situ tests. The cage structure was constructed of PP (polypropylene) frames and PP tubes (ø130 mm×24 pieces). A set of tests were conducted at a depth of 15 m near Seosaeng, Ulsan, Korea for 295 days (23 July, 2012 to 13 May, 2013). A total of 155 sea cucumbers were used and fed a mixed diet containing mud, mineral, wheat, fish meal, etc (3% of their body weight). At the end of the experiments, sea cucumber showed a higher survival rate in feed shelter (77.14%) rather than no feed shelter (64.71%). The specific growth rate (SGR) of sea cucumbers in feed condition (0.04% day－1) was higher than that of no feed culture animals (－0.49% day－1) during total experimental periods. The result was able to find a no significance difference in survival rate but a significance difference in SGR under feed and no feed treatments.

The sea cage in marine aquaculture might be varied such as on the stability and shape in the open sea by environmental factors. To evaluate the stability of net cage structures in the open sea, the physical and numerical modeling techniques were applied and compared with field observations. This study was carried out to analyse the stability and the volume loss which would have an effect on the fish swimming behavior in the octagonal pillar type fish cage under the open sea. As a results, the volume loss ratio of the fish cage as measured using a depth sensor was indicated a value of the 30.3% under the current velocity (1.1m/s). The fish cage should be consisted of a concrete block with a weight over 10 tons, a mooring rope diameter over 28mm PP, and a shackle of 25mm under the current speed of 1m/sec for reasonable stability.

A numerical model analysis was performed to analyze the motion and mooring tension response of submersible fish cage systems in irregular waves and currents. Two systems were examined: a submersible cage mooring with a single, high tension mooring and the same system, but with an additional three point mooring. Using a Morison equation type model, simulations of the systems were conducted with the cage at the surface and submerged. Irregular waves(JONSWAP spectrum) with and without a co-linear current with a magnitude of 0.5m/s were simulated into the model as input parameters. Surge, heave and pitch dynamic calculations were made, along with tension responses in the mooring lines. Results were analyzed in both the time and frequency domains and linear transfer functions were calculated.

Numerical modeling was used to evaluate the submerging characteristics of the submersible fish cage system operated by compressed air. The submerging characteristics calculated by numerical analysis as the cage was moved up and down were nearly identical to existing experiment results. Thus, the numerical model proposed in this study could be very useful in analyzing various parameters required for optimizing the design of a submersible fish cage system operated by compressed air.

The expansion of near shore aquaculture is feasibility of moving aquaculture facilities into the open ocean. Numerical modeling technique using finite element method was used to enable the optimum design and evaluation of submersible aquaculture cage system. The characteristics of mooring loads response in mooring lines under waves and current and their response amplitude operators were calculated for single and three point mooring configuration at the surface condition and submerged one. The static mooring loads without wave and current loading were similar for both the surface and submerged configuration. It was calculated that three point mooring was more adequate than single point mooring for the mooring configuration of submersible aquaculture cage system. The wave induced response amplitude operators for the single point mooring configuration with the influence of currents were identical to those without the influence of currents.

The real size submersible fish cage(L×B×D, 3×3×6m)system consists of the compressed air equipment was made in order to control efficiently in case of heavy weather or environmental pollution such as red tide, and then carried out experiment on the submersible functions and safety for that cage at Koje inland sea in 14th June, 1995. The authors could confirm that the submersible cage was very stabilized it's submersible functions and safety when the cage was floating and sinking at sea.

The objective of this study was undertaken to investigate changes in fatty acid profile of breast and thigh muscle of old laying hens as transferred from cage to backyard raising system and to provide basic information on using old laying hens to producers for environmental managements. Overall, percentages of unsaturated fatty acid obtained from breast and thigh muscle with cage and backyard raising system are the most abundant, followed by saturated fatty acid. For breast muscle, there were no differences (P>0.05) between cage rearing system and backyard raising system in saturated fatty acid (SFA) and mono unsaturated fatty acid (MUFA). Poly unsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) and PUFA:SFA ratios were significantly higher in backyard raising systems in comparison with cage rearing systems (P<0.05). No differences (P>0.05) were detected between both rearing systems for MUFA, PUFA, and PUFA:SFA ratios with thigh muscles. SFA in thigh muscle was significantly (P<0.05) higher in cage rearing systems compared with backyard raising systems. In conclusion, using breast and thigh muscle meats from old laying hens as functional foods or investigating impact assessment on the improvement of farm management system may serve as a good management practice to encourage producers.