Harvesting water is a lot easier than trapping crab.

That’s Gary Mangini’s assessment about his new role as captain of the Spirit of the North, a former crabbing boat that will pump deep ocean water off Oahu’s west side.

“This is a paradise compared to what we were going through up in Alaska,” Mangini said.

The converted vessel, which was blessed Monday at Aloha Tower, will anchor 3.4 miles off Ko Olina where it will pump 240,000 gallons of ocean water per day from a depth of 2,000 feet.

The pumped water is desalinated on the deck of the boat through reverse osmosis and turned into 80,000 gallons of potable drinking water.

Deep Ocean Hawaii, a private company with offices in Honolulu hopes to sell the desalinated water to a wide range of companies all over the world.

“Everything from beverages and beer to skin care products,” said the Deep Ocean Hawaii’s Executive Vice President and C.O.O. Rich Treadway.

Treadway says the purity of the desalinated water is guaranteed because it comes from so deep.

“The water below four hundred meters has actually been protected from everything floating in the surface from the beginning of time. So we're getting water that has never been exposed to mankind's pollution.”

Desalinating 80,000 gallons of water per day also produces a salt rich byproduct known as brine. Deep Ocean Hawaii says the brine will not pose any environmental problems.

"The saltier water is immediately put back in the open ocean and has the same effect that evaporation has when it pulls potable water from the seawater," said Treadway.

After the water is desalinated on the deck of the Spirit of the North, it’s then moved to a barge anchored next to the boat where it’s stored in bladders that hold 5,000 gallons.

"When we are finished with each bladder we seal it, label it, shut the door and it now a finished product is ready for delivery anywhere on the planet,” said Treadway.

Deep ocean water has become the state's leading locally produced export.

The industry was born three years ago when Koyo USA began utilizing ocean water pumped by the Natural Energy Lab at Keahole Point on the Big Island for a bottled water product.

According to the Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism sales of deep ocean water last year reached 37.4 million dollars, most of it going to Japan as drinking water.

In addition to marketing its product all over the globe Deep Ocean Hawaii is anxious to become part of the state's emergency planning, providing fresh water if disaster strikes, for instance in the event of a tsunami.

“The platform can be brought into a coastal area,” said Treadway, “and literally could be pumping the water that is floating in, desalinating it and distributing it as potable drinking water.”

Deep Ocean Hawaii Website