Dossier Océan et énergie - Énergie Thermique des Mers

Sommaire IOA News Letters

GAUTHIER REPORTED HIS VISIT OF JAPANESE DOWA LABS.

With the support of the National Agency for Sciences and Technology (STA), the Japanese. Fishery Agency and the Japan Marine Science and Technology Center (JMSTC)have set up two laboratories dedicated to biotechnological experiments for deep ocean water applications (DOWA). Mr. Michel Gauthier of the IFREMER, Drs. Paul Yuen and C. Liu of the University of Hawaii and Mr. T. Daniel of the NELH were recently invited to visit these facilities. Shortly after the visit, they prepared a report and Mr.Michel Gauthier presented this report in the second IOA Planning Meeting. Highlights of their report are summarized as below:

	The Toyama Bay Artificial Up-welling Experiment
	The experiment was conducted a barge anchored on the sea bed at 300 m off-shore in

Fig. 1. A flow chart showing the ocean productivity investigations performed for the Toyama Bay Artificial Upwelling Experiment.

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Table 1. R/D projects conducted in the Cap Muroto DOW Testing Facilities.

TITLE	RESEARCH ORGANIZATION	RESULTS/STATUS(March,1990)
Basic studies on effective mass culture of useful diatoms by use of deep seawater	Japan Marine Science and Technology Center	Growth response of marine diatom to deep seawater is investigated and stimulative growth factors are identified
Researches on breeding of deep-sea fish Japanese Butter-fish	Deep Sea Water Laboratory, Kochi Prefecture	Successfully conducting the breeding of Japanese Butter-fish using cold deep seawater
Making of seaweed beds by using deep sea-water	Deep Sea Water Laboratory, Kochi Prefecture	Successfully conducting the culture of three species of seaweed
Chemical Speciation of bioessen tia1 trace metals in artificial up-welling water	Meteological Research Institute	Chemical form (organic and inorganic)and concentration of iron and copper are determined
Effect of deep seawater on nutritional quality of diet plankton	Nansei National Fisheries Research Institute	Nutritional quality of marine Chlorella and rotifer that are cultured in cold deep seawater in investigated
Production of useful substances from deep seawater by micro algae	Government Industrial Institute, Chugoku	Fatty acids and pigments contained in a green-algae, Dunaliella cultured in deep seawater is investigated
Cultivation of food phytoplankton with deep seawater using growth-simulating bacteria	Faculty of Agriculture, Kochi University	Phytoplankton growth promoting bacteria is investigated
Disease and Immunization of fish cultured in deep seawater	Faculty of Agriculture, Kochi University	Development of the immune response of fish to prevent the expected diseases is examined in controlled temperature using deep seawater
Property of deep seawater supply system	Japan Marine Science and Technology Center	A long term variation of temperature, concentration of nutrients and water intake rate on supplied deep seawater are investigated
Basic studies on effective mass culture of useful phytoplankton by use of deep seawater	Japan Marine Science and Technology Center	Beginning
Research on breeding of abalone	Deep Sea Water Laboratory, Kochi Prefecture	Effect of cold deep seawater on survival rate of abalone is investigated
Feasibility study of microalga1 mass culture using deep seawater	Chlorella Industry Co., Ltd.	Beginning
Cultivation of marine animal broodstock and its development to breeding	Central Research Laboratory, Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd.	Successfully conducting the breeding of At1anic sa1mom and flounder
Development of a water-tem-perature-control system for fish farming	Institute of Technology , Shimizu Corporation	Successfully operating the system using heat exchanger and heat pumps
A distilling system of deep sea-water combined heat pump and fresh water generator	Nippon Yusen Kabushiki Kaisha, Ltd.	Successfully operating the system

The Bay of Toyama.

The deep ocean water required for the experiment was pumped from -250 m and spread over the sea surface.

The Toyama Bay Experiment - Deep Ocean Water was pumped and spread over the sea surface.

The dimensions of the barge were 25m¡Ñ11m¡Ñ1.3m and its displacement was 320 tons. The flow rate of deep ocean water was 1 cubic meter per second. This experiment (Fig. 1) was performed for several weeks during the summers of 1989 and 1990. An oceanographic research vessel from the Fishery Agency was arranged and stayed in the test zone to monitor the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the sampled sea water to observe any significant changes due to the addition of enriched deep ocean water to the surface sea layer. The data obtained showed that the changes in biological environment was not significant because: 1)the amount of deep ocean water too small; 2)the dilution effect was rather significant; and 3)the temperature/density difference with surface warm water could only induce small perturbation of the surface layers ecosystem. Currently, a small OTEC heat exchangers experiment is being conducted on the barge.

The Cap Muroto DOW Testing Facilities

To enhance the DOWA development, a land based testing facilities is maintained in the Cap Muroto where the deep ocean water is pumped at depth-320 m through a 125 mm diameter iron shielded polyethylene pipe. The total length of the pipe is 2650 m and 300 cubic meter of water at temperature of 12¢J(intake temperature of 10¢J)may be supplied each day. The facilities are currently used to support related biotechnology and aquaculture research projects (Table 1.) Gauthier's report also mentioned that Kochi prefecture's Governor Hon. Tsutomu Nakauchi had indicated to him regarding their desire to coordinate a worldwide cooperative effort for DOWA development.