Tapping Into the Deep

In a coastal lava desert at the western tip of the island of Hawaii, a hodgepodge of unusual plants is thriving. Artichokes, Brussels sprouts, even delicate roses bloom in the broiling sun, alongside the passion fruit and orchids that belong in Hawaiian backyards.

The secret to getting temperate plants to flourish in these harsh conditions lies 2,000 feet below the sun-flecked surf just yards away.

Cold water drawn from the ocean’s depths is being piped underground through this experimental plot. Although the salt water never touches the soil directly, it chills the plants’ roots, fooling them into performing as if it were perpetually spring.

For John Craven, whose shock of white hair and mobile eyebrows make him look a bit like a mad scientist, this modest vegetable patch represents “a breakthrough for world agriculture.” The cold pipes draw moisture from the air, creating condensation that waters the garden, eliminating the need for conventional irrigation.

“It allows us to convert the desert into a sustainable habitat,” said Craven, an ocean engineer and president of Common Heritage Corp. “It creates a thermodynamic environment in which the nutrients are pumped up the plants at a great rate. The colder the root, the tastier the vegetables. And when you harvest, the plant doesn’t die. It just keeps growing.”

The experimental garden is one of two dozen enterprises at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii, a state research and business park set in a barren, black field of lava rock near Kona International Airport.

It is the only place in the world where large volumes of cold, deep-sea water are pumped ashore for research and commercial use.

Founded in 1974, when Craven was the state’s marine affairs coordinator, the laboratory was originally set up to generate electricity by making use of the difference in temperature between ocean water in the depths and at the surface. That proved possible but not very practical.

Instead, his project has spawned a wide array of activities that weren’t anticipated when the first pipeline was plunged into the ocean. More than 16,000 gallons of water arrive on shore per minute, at a chilly 43 degrees Fahrenheit. The water is used to air-condition buildings at the site, and can be mixed with warmer surface water as needed.

But the salt water offers more than variable temperatures. It is clean--free of pathogens--and loaded with nutrients such as inorganic nitrates and phosphates.

Combined with the “free heat” of the fabled Hawaiian sun, the deep-sea water offers ideal conditions for “ocean farming,” aquaculture and innovations in marine biotechnology.

Clams, Oysters Get Head Start on Life

Tenants at the research park are experimenting with everything from agar-agar, a microbiological growth medium, to medicinal mushrooms. Demand has grown so much that the state plans to put in another pipeline that will nearly triple the volume of water brought ashore, allowing the 300-acre park to expand onto an adjacent 550 acres.

“We’re not trying to replace Silicon Valley,” said James Frazier, executive director of the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority. “Our type of technology is different. It’s biotechnology that uses the resources that are unique along this coastline.”

Just down the road from Craven’s little organic garden, Taylor Shellfish Inc. and Coast Seafoods Co., two Washington state companies that are among the biggest clam and oyster producers in the country, are giving millions upon millions of tiny specks of larvae a head start on life.

The creatures are coddled for a couple of months on their Hawaiian vacation, enjoying the sun, gourmet fare and pristine ocean waters.

“They’re very happy here,” said Greg Jakob, general manager for Taylor Shellfish-Kona, surrounded by tiny shellfish in bubbling tanks and raceways. “We adjust the warm water line and the cold water line constantly so we always have optimal temperatures throughout the year. It can be July, but our water can be 40 degrees. The clean, rich, deep sea water is great for us.”

The larvae, or spat, feast on algae grown in the deep-ocean water. When they reach roughly a quarter-inch in diameter, about the size of a pencil eraser, the baby mollusks head home, hardy enough to “set” in Northwest waters. If they stayed in Washington through the winter, they would require artificial light and heated water--both costly.

Taylor’s Hawaii operation expects to handle 300 million clams and more than 30 million oysters this year, virtually all of the company’s production, according to Jakob. A small oyster hatchery recently begun at Keahole is five times as productive, for its size, as Taylor’s hatcheries on the mainland, he said, and will soon supply all the oyster larvae needed here.

Tenants at the research and business park are charged rates for sea water that cover costs of electricity and system maintenance, but not the capital outlay for the pipelines. The Legislature just appropriated $15 million to install the new 55-inch pipeline, which will reach 1,000 feet deeper into the ocean and bring up water at about 40 degrees, as well as another surface-water pipe and pumps.

Similar Research Conducted in Japan

The notion of using deep-ocean water as a renewable resource has spread beyond Hawaii’s shores, though it works only where a coastal shelf drops dramatically into deep water, and the water can be piped only so far before it begins to warm up.

In Japan, the government has built smaller pipelines to tap deep-ocean water for aquaculture research, according to Tom Daniel, scientific director of the Natural Energy Lab. Craven’s cold-water agriculture concept will soon get a large-scale test when Okinawa’s prefectural government launches a commercial spinach-growing operation on Kume Island, he said. That project is supposed to pay for itself.

Makai Ocean Engineering of Waimanalo, Hawaii, which created the Natural Energy Laboratory’s pipelines, recently designed a system for Cornell University to plumb the depths of Cayuga Lake in upstate New York. Cold water pumped from 270 feet beneath the surface will be used to air-condition the campus in the summer, according to Reb Bellinger, Makai’s manager of project development. Lake Ontario may be tapped in similar fashion by other users, he said.

“There’s quite a bit of interest in exploring the potential of deep water now,” he said. “It’s really starting to move.”

Cold Water Technology

At the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii, cold water drawn from the depths of the ocean is being put to research and commercial use. More than 16,000 gallons per minute of the chilly water--43 degrees Fahrenheit--is pumped ashore, creating conditions ideal for agriculture and ocean farming. Using deep-ocean water as a renewable resource works only where a coastal shelf drops dramatically into deep water, and the water can be piped only so far before it begins to warm up.