Grieg Seafood has obtained two development licenses for a project to install FishGLOBE, a closed aquaculture technology, in a larger format than previous models.
Grieg Seafood’s Rogaland segment has entered into a joint-venture partnership with Stavanger, Norway-based FishGLOBE, to develop the FishGLOBE 30K, which will have a volume of 31,000 square meters, with capacity for 2,300 metric tons (MT) of salmon – capable of holding two to three times the number of salmon found in a standard open net-pen sea cage.
The JV will be run through partner company Next Seafood, which will first focus on building two smaller post-smolt FishGLOBE farms in Ryfylke, Norway. The 3.5-model farms have a 3,500-cubic-meter capacity with a capacity of up to 780 MT of salmon per growth cycle. Using these farms for smolt grow-out allows it to speed the farming process and gives it “better control of [sea] lice and disease,” it said.
“We will reduce our footprint, improve fish welfare, and grow sustainably. We work a lot with this, both by improving traditional farming and using new technology,” Grieg Seafood Rogaland Regional Director Nina Willumsen Grieg said. “Through the collaboration in Next Seafood, the goal is to develop technology and expertise in closed facilities at sea.”
All FishGLOBE farms are made with a polyethylene (HDPE) structure designed for marine conditions. Once the 3.5 models are finished, Next Seafood will make a decision on future projects involving FishGLOBE farms, including on whether to proceed with 30K model – a decision it said it will make by the end of 2022.
“We will contribute to sustainable growth in the aquaculture industry through deliveries of closed fish farms for post-smolt and in the future also for food fish. Together with Grieg Seafood Rogaland, which has expertise and experience that complements us well, we will take new steps in our technology development. We look forward to realizing the 30K through the collaboration in Next Seafood,” FishGLOBE General Manager Tor Hellestøl said.
The Next Seafood venture represents Grieg Seafood’s latest foray into nontraditional forms of salmon farming. Grieg Seafood British Columbia has advanced several initiatives designed to move more of its salmon production into land-based systems. And in January 2021, it purchased a one-third ownership stake in Årdal Aqua and announced plans to build a new land-based salmon facility in southern Norway. Årdal Aqua will produce at least 3,000 metric tons (MT) of post-smolt annually and grow fish all the way to harvest size at a proposed land-based facility in Årdal, Rogaland.
The moves are part of Grieg Seafood’s post-smolt strategy, which aims to reduce the time that its fish spends in open net-pens in the sea, which it said “is central to our efforts to reduce our impact, improve fish welfare, and increase biological control.”
Grieg Seafood is piloting its post-smolt strategy in Rogaland at the fresh-water facility Trosnavåg and via the post-smolt joint venture Tytlandsvik Aqua, as well as at its fresh-water facility in Gold River in British Columbia, Canada, at its fresh-water facility in Newfoundland, and at its post-smolt joint venture Nordnorsk Smolt in Finnmark.
Photo courtesy of Grieg Seafood
