Fish Farming Mooring Line

Fish Farming Mooring Line

The fish cage mooring lines include the anchors, ground chains, ropes and related shackles, and buoys.

1. Anchors: Different types of anchors are suited to various types of seabed. Our supplied Double Fluke Stingray Anchors are used for sandy, medium clay and silt bottoms. It is the most commonly used anchors in farm mooring.

2. Ground Chain: The ground chain, connecting the anchor and the mooring rope is primarily used to provide weight to the mooring line, in order to keep the angle between seafloor and the mooring line within the desired range, between 9° and 12°.

3. Shackles: Shackles are used to connect mooring ropes, chains and anchors. The SWL is usually used to identify the size of shackles. Shackles can be D Type and Omega Type. Omega shaped shackles are the most common used, because they can accommodate a greater number of connections.

4. Ropes and Thimbles: Ropes are the main components of the mooring system, and are used for both the mooring lines and grid system lines. Thimbles are generally made of hot-dip galvanized steel, and are used to reinforce the rope loop (eye splice) where it is connected to metal equipment (shackles, rings, etc.), and thus where it is subjected to heavy abrasion. Thimbles can markedly reduce wear on the rope. Thimbles used for moorings are usually tube type and open type.

5. Steel Rings: Hot-dip galvanized steel rings are used at intersections in the mooring system. Oval shaped are inserted into steel thimbles in order to avoid using larger more expensive elements, like shackles.

6. Connection Plate: Mooring plates are the main connecting points of the whole grid structure where all components come together and are locked with shackles: the grid system, the mooring lines, the buoy chains and the cage bridles. Plates are usually  roundshaped, with sufficient holes for the shackle pins to be inserted. 

7. Buoys: For the fish farm mooring buoys, the outer material is often rotationally moulded polyethylene, and the filling is usually polyurethane foam or polystyrene foam, a steel bar(about 30–40 mm thickness) runs through the main buoy body to connect the two opposite attachment rings and add strength. The buoyancy in kilograms of a buoy is equivalent to the volume of the buoy minus its weight in kilograms.