Could scuba-harvesting be horticulture's next frontier? - FreshFruitPortal.com

Could scuba-harvesting be horticulture's next frontier?

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Could scuba-harvesting be horticulture's next frontier?

An outlandish idea while on holiday has now become a reality for Italian diver Sergio Gamberini, whose company Ocean Reef Group is growing crops like basil and strawberries in balloon-like structures on the ocean floor. Ocean Reef Group - Nemo's Garden

The company - with offices in San Marcos, California and Genoa, Italy - is now at the feasibility study stage for the patented technology, currently tested through the 'Nemo's Garden' project at a depth of eight meters (26 feet) close to the Riviera beachside town of Noli.

On the Nemo's Garden website, Sergio's son Luca Gamberini says the idea of the project is to utilize the properties of large bodies of water, such as their "constant temperature, united with the natural evaporation of a surface of liquid in contact with an air space", to create an underwater glasshouse.

He said the team's dream was to harness the technology for large-scale production, providing an "alternative solution to grow food in a responsible, small-footprint-on-earth kind of way".

AFP reported evaporation ensured humidity of 80-90% inside the spheres which gives the plants the necessary moisture to grow, while the depth and climate mean they also get enough sun.

"I don't know if it will be the future because we have to prove that it canĀ be self-supportable," Gamberini senior told the agency.

"If a pound of lettuce (grown underwater) costsĀ too much, it won't have a future," he was quoted as saying.

However, he told AFP that if successful in economic terms, the technology could be a solution for arid regions next to the ocean.

The Washington Post reported the project was motivated by a desire to do something different, show people the beauty of the ocean, and to inspire new dreams.

"We completely lost the crops four times, but it didn't really matter because we have such great growth rates," he told the newspaper.

The story reported the group was monitoring five biospheres with plants including lettuce, basil, strawberries and beans, while plans were in the works to test mushrooms as well.

The local government currently only allows production permits from May to September, the Washington Post reported.

The publication also reported the structures had supported marine life around them, with octopuses taking shelter and endangered seahorses forming nurseries underneath.

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