Stepping up salmon farming technology on Cermaq’s iFarm

An complete salmon farm in Vesterålen, Norway is now equipped with an iFarm setup, right after the fish have been stocked this autumn – to examination the thought and technological know-how on a professional scale.

In the previous stage, iFarm products was rigged in individual internet pens at Cermaq’s Martnesvika web-site, the most important emphasis was to comply with the fish behaviour, and gain encounter with the new equipment in the pens. The encounter acquired so considerably has been employed to modify gear and set up for phase 2 of the venture. This means that the iFarm equipment that is set into sea in stage 2 at Langøyhovden is a tiny distinctive than the gear in stage 1 in Martnesvika.

“Among other factors, we have witnessed that the structure of the sensor housing and the openings the fish ought to swim via to get to the surface have an effect on the fish’s swimming sample,” explained iFarm project supervisor Karl Fredrik Ottem, in a press release.

“We are dependent on the fish selecting to swim by the sensor dwelling, so in this phase we are placing out 6 distinctive sensor houses with distinctive geometric layouts, to check which residences the salmon desire. Then we will also know which sensor residences we will use in phase a few, when we are going to stock fish for the third time in the undertaking,” he added.

The 6 homes that have now been set into sea have been set collectively on land at Myre in Vesterålen, prior to they have been transported to the sea site and put in in the net pens, at a depth of 8 metres.

“We have a lot of and excellent cameras so that we can continuously observe how the fish swim and make certain that it eats and thrives,” says Ottem. “So significantly, it appears that the fish are receiving used to new machines in the net pen, at both equally Martnesvika and Langøyhovden.

Problems and issues

Even even though the fish appear to be to prosper and improve effectively, Cermaq admits that not anything has been jogging easily. With so a great deal equipmentin the internet pen, they say that it has been demanding to uncover excellent methods for the two digicam cleansing and products upkeep.

“There are big and complicated installations that possibly have to be lifted up to be managed, or we have to go underneath h2o to get to it, and it has been demanding to come across fantastic routines to make this occur though we consider care of the fish’s well-getting,” states Ottem. “But we also just take these activities with us when we seem at the style and design and adjustment of products and set up for the following section.”

Promising sea lice results

As the fish are kept at a depth of 10 metres and much less lice have been noticed on the salmon there.

“We reckon that we have saved a minimum amount of 1 delicing operation on the iFarm fish throughout stage 1 at Martnesvika, even though we only have the iFarm set-up in single web pens there,” suggests Ottem.

“At Langøyhovden we have iFarm set-up in all the net pens, and it will be really exciting to see what impact it will have on lice concentrations sooner or later,” he adds.