Food & Drink / The primary mission of the ship Kaimimoana is to collect and service weatherworn research buoys that help scientists predict El Niño- and La Niña-related ocean temperatures. But the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) vessel also has become home to a new kind of research project.

High on the ship’s bridge deck, lettuce and herbs have taken root in trays of volcanic rock. The shock of green is the product of a 24-square-foot aquaponic system that is struggling to adapt to the marine environment. A 90-gallon compost bin shares the deck.

The project represents a private investment by the ship’s officers–$3,500 and growing–to help push forward greening efforts, not only in the Honolulu blue-water fleet operated by NOAA, but in the maritime industry as a whole.

“You start small and see what you can do,” says Helen Ballantyne, a nurse with the US Public Health Services. She also serves as the ship’s medical officer and initiated the experiments. “If it works on our ship, I may be able to find a buy-in from other ships.”

The objective is to cut down on the amount of food waste tossed overboard by vessels traveling in warm waters and to add fresh vegetables to the crew’s menu. The effort earned the project an award in November from the Center for Environmental Innovation and Leadership, an organization that recognizes the top environmental initiatives undertaken by government agencies.

“We typically run out of greens,” Ballantyne says. “By 60 days at sea, we’re down to cans. It would be good if we could keep overboard waste on the ship and compost and grow fresh food.”

Shipboard Composter

Ballantyne came to the Kaimimoana from landlocked New Mexico. It was her first introduction to the international protocols that allow vessels traveling at least 12 miles from shore to simply dump everyday waste overboard –with the exception, of course, of plastics and oil. It’s a practice that does not sit well with her.

“Worldwide, everybody’s throwing stuff overboard,” she says. “The ocean cannot sustain that. At some point, somebody is going to have to call quits to it. As an environmental agency, we need to be the leaders.”

The ship already launched a recycling program for aluminum, glass and cardboard–all items traditionally chucked into the water far enough from shore. But between 42 and 50 pounds of leftover food went over the side each day.

“It’s perfectly legal to discard waste overboard,” says Matthew Wingate, the vessel’s captain. “If ships do that, it doesn’t mean they’re bad. But we’re an environmental ship.”

He and Ballantyne invested in a plastic bin and a wood chipper, gathering food waste on the deck and feeding it through the machine. Within a week, they had filled the bin with sludge and shredded cardboard, a mixture that ultimately yielded 35 gallons of nutrient-rich soil. It’s something they would like to see implemented on a wider scale if NOAA could secure the funding.

“If we had six of those, we could go a whole cruise without having to put food waste overboard,” Wingate says.

The Garden

The miniature aquaponic system has encountered more problems and needs further sea trials to determine if it is viable in the maritime environment, Ballantyne says.

Tilapia and worms work in tandem to fertilize the operation, and in ideal conditions, the lettuce, herbs and even cucumber and eggplant–vegetables with a longer growth cycle–thrive in the irrigated rock beds.

But conditions are not always ideal. High seas sloshed water and volcanic rock from the fish tanks and planters, salt water killed the eggplant before it could be harvested and hungry birds followed the ship for a week, digging up worms.

The pumping mechanism that controls the water supply broke. Twice.

Still, fresh produce at sea is a luxury not to be discounted. On the system’s inaugural trip, Ballantyne harvested four salads for about 30 people from the bins. She chopped basil for pesto and mixed ice water with fresh mint and cucumber for the deckhands.

“It could supplement our diet,” she says, “but it needs to be in a greenhouse, and you need a MacGyver on the ship to work on it.”

Inventor’s Playground

The Kaimimoana may not have a MacGyver on the ship, but it does have one on land. Glenn Martinez of Olomana Gardens built the system, modifying a mobile ‘aquaport’ that he designed with a grant from the University of Hawaii. He clearly enjoys the intellectual challenge of improving ship operations and already has replaced a flush irrigation system with a drip. He has plans for other upgrades when the ship returns this week.

“This is for people who have outgrown train sets,” he says.

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