Early rendering of AquaSpar fish pens

OceanSpar was founded in 1988 by Gary Loverich and Tom Croker on Bainbridge Island, WA USA. At the time, Gary and Tom were developing innovative trawl gear for the Bering Sea fleet through their first company, Net Systems. They recognized the resource limits in wild-catch fisheries and began focusing their attention on solutions for more sustainable seafood production.

In 1990, the first AquaSpar fish pens were deployed for sea trials in Puget Sound, the Straits of Juan de Fuca and the Gulf of Mexico. These early projects validated the excellent sea-keeping ability of spars for use in fish containment systems, and they helped the OceanSpar team develop their first offshore mooring systems and operating equipment. Commercial deployments of AquaSpar began in 1992.

Gary Loverich conceived the SeaStation design in 1993 to enable productive aquaculture in higher energy, storm-prone sites. Early structural tests were conducted in the U.S. Navy’s David Taylor wave basinwith sea trails in Puget Sound and the Philippines. The patented, central spar design of SeaStation proved to be a stable, durable platform for efficient operations in open ocean conditions.

In 1998, SeaStation was chosen as the primary fish pen for the new Open Ocean Aquaculture program at the University of New Hampshire. The OOA program was established to promote research and development into environmentally sustainable offshore aquaculture. After additional testing at UNH, commercial deployments of SeaStation began in 2000.

Todd Madsen joined the team in 2006 to help OceanSpar address the growing interest in its products and services. Today, OceanSpar serves successful offshore aquaculture clients on four continents and continues to invest in the development of advanced operating equipment and techniques for surface and submerged offshore aquaculture.