RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE OFEF SITING 



It is recommended that one or more of the Phase 2 and Phase 3 farms be located 

 in the southern Cahfornia offshore region from 32° 30'N to 34°N and from 1 17° 30'W to 

 120°W. If dynamically-positioned farms have not been completely engineered by the time 

 large-scale OFEF's are ready to be tested, a number of possible locations exist in water shal- 

 low enough to allow for mooring. One possible offshore region is the zone from Cortes Bank 

 at 32° 30'N, 1 19°W northwest past San Nicolas Island to Santa Rosa Island at 34°N, 120°W 

 (Fig. 49). This region is called the Santa Rosa-Cortes Ridge and is a relatively shallow region, 

 100 to 500 fathoms (180 to 900 meters), 24 to 40 kilometers across and covering approxi- 

 mately 5000 square kilometers (1,280,000 acres). Other possible regions include the area 

 south of site 1 between commercial and pleasure traffic zones covering about 1300 square 

 kilometers of nearshore sites and the area northwest of San Clemente and Catalina Islands, 

 33° 15'N to 34°N and 118° 20'W to 1 19° 20'W, encompassing about 2600 square kilometers 

 (not including shipping lanes). These areas could conceivably support some 22 Phase-1 (405 

 square kilometer) farms, all within 120 kilometers of potential support and processing cen- 

 ters. As dynamically-positioned farms are engineered and built, and as international agree- 

 ments are made, the farms could spread further west and south, thus opening up millions 

 of square kilometers to potential OFEF farming. 



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