AWARD YEAR
2023
CATEGORY
Community
GOALS
Decent Work & Economic Growth, Life Below Water
KEYWORDS
modular float, marine pollution, Ooyster culture, occupational injuries, environmental friendly
COUNTRY
Taiwan
DESIGNED BY
Kai-Chieh Hsueh, Yu-Ting Chen, Hsun-Yu Chang, Zhong-Wei Lin, Prof. Kai-Chu Li
WEBSITE
https://kayjie0411.wixsite.com/ocf-project
OCF
OCF is used for oyster culture. Through modular design, oyster farmers can freely combine.
How does it work?
OCF is a modular float that switches among vertical, horizontal, and shed types through ropes. It allows oyster farmers to switch between intertidal and deep-sea modes, simplifying the complex process of oyster culture and reducing occupational injuries.
Farmers are able to consider the seabed, seasons, and fields as different combinations. It increases the wave resistance, which avoids the damage of the shed structure and marine pollution.
The horizontal texture design on the side of the OCF allows farmers to judge the water intake, so as to know the growth weight. And the platform increases safety for farmers when walking on the OCF.
Why is it needed?
Each string of oysters is about 4 meters long and weighs 20 to 40 kilograms. Though a Shear leg pulls up the rope first, it still needs to rely on manpower to pull the strings of oysters from the sea surface and put it into the cage. Repeating a series of laborious actions such as handling, harvesting, fixing and browsing will cause occupational injury. And the population of oyster farming is aging, and the work consumes a lot of physical strength. The shell of an oyster is also sharp, and there will be a large number of parasites attached to the shell. If the oyster farmers are scratched during harvest, it will cause skin swelling and pain.
How does it improve life?
In order to fundamentally solve the problem of pollution of oyster raising facilities, OCF can be used repeatedly by oyster farmers in the intertidal zone and deep sea. The oyster strings can be switched between vertical and horizontal through simple operations. And the problem of lumbar injury to oyster farmers during harvest is improved.
OCF adopts ASA material, which is more resistant to the sun than other products, and can avoid the problem that the structure is easy to break and produce plastic particles due to long-term exposure to sea water and sunlight. OCF can be reused for a longer period than the bamboo currently used, and also avoid marine environmental pollution. OCF applies multiple fields, which can be flexibly combined according to terrain, season and field. In addition, when harvesting, you can use buoyancy to harvest quickly, so as to avoid the waist injury of farmers.