Norwegian salmon-farming company SalMar has successfully completed two salmon production cycles in the “Marine Donut,” a prototype salmon farm produced by Bluegreen Group.
The Marine Donut is a 600-metric-ton (MT) closed-containment salmon farm built by Bluegreen that is shaped like a giant donut. SalMar took delivery of the enclosed farm, which Bluegreen said is the largest thermoplastics structure in the world, in July 2023 and has since reported positive results from the concept.
According to a press release from Bluegreen, the first prototype has continued to deliver solid results both biologically and operationally, and SalMar successfully harvested almost 1,000 MT of salmon from the system.
“We are truly grateful for the trust SalMar has shown in adopting this technology and for the close collaboration throughout the project. It has been crucial to achieving this milestone,” Bluegreen CEO Nils-Johan Tufte said.
According to Bluegreen, the full harvest operation took 12 hours and was “safe, efficient, and gentle” following risk-reducing measures implemented via a collaboration between Bluegreen and SalMar. The successful harvest means the Marine Donut has gone through two full-scale test cycles – which completes the measurement program outlined in its development license.
“This is a major milestone for the project and a clear confirmation that the technology works in practice,” Bluegreen Chief Commercial Officer Geir Andresen said. “We now have what we need to move forward with the industrialization of the Marine Donut.”
The company said the biological performance of the Marine Donut was excellent and the fish had low mortality and high growth rates, proving the operational theory behind creating the Marine Donut.
“This project demonstrates what’s possible when you combine technological innovation with operational expertise from an experienced player like SalMar,” Tufte said. “We’re proud of this collaboration and excited to keep building future-ready solutions for aquaculture. We’re now looking forward to the next phase: commercializing the Marine Donut.”
Bluegreen said that it continued to implement changes to the Marine Donut during the trial runs and partnered with SalMar to implement changes that reduced the structural load on the facility.
“We’ve learned a great deal along the way and used those insights to improve the commercial version of the technology,” Andresen said. “Marine Donut 2.0 has already received structural upgrades.”
