Marine Harvest Canada has announced it is investing CAD 40 million (USD 30.3 million, EUR 27.6 million) in a new series of Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) for raising juvenile salmon.
The company will build seven RAS units at two farms at North Vancouver Island, and expects to finish the first stages of the work in 2016.
The systems are land-based, and will be used to raise parr and smolts before placing them in seawater pens. According to the company, RAS uses a fraction of the freshwater used by more traditional flow-through systems.
“I would be shocked if I saw anything better. Performance has met or exceeded our expectations,” said Dean Guest, Marine Harvest’s Freshwater Production Director. “The engineering design is unique because water flows throughout the system without the many pipes and valves required in older models. The full flow passes through each process of the treatment system with no side stream components or use of piping.”
The company has used RAS technology before, but this new project is an improvement on previous designs, and the company claims that when complete, it will make Marine Harvest the largest producer of smolts in North America.
