Norway Royal Salmon’s proposal for Arctic salmon farming has gotten a little closer to fruition as the Norwegian government recently approved licenses for the development of farms based on the company’s semi-submersible offshore fish farm technology designed for severe weather conditions.
The company said the licenses recognize the durability and potential of the semi-submersible offshore fish farm designed for harsh sea areas created out of a partnership between Norway Royal Salmon (NRS), Aker ASA and and Aker Solutions.
The new technology will allow for significantly increased utilization of Norway’s northernmost sea waters, where in addition, salmon farming using the new net pens will have a small environmental footprint, the company claims.
Climate change has forced several nations with Arctic frontiers to re-evaluate their common fish farming practices close to shore. As waters warm, more salmon farmers may have to move into the Arctic regions to raise temperature-sensitive species such as Atlantic salmon.
In a 2018 interview with Reuters, Tanya Hoel of Norway’s Seafood Innovation Cluster said her country is already seeing the impact of climate change on their ecosystems.
“We have new species entering our ecosystems, we see the warmer waters are challenging to our salmon,” she said. “But in Norway we have been very lucky because we have a very, very long coastline, so we had opportunities to move our production higher north. A few years ago, perhaps 10 years ago, nobody thought we would be able to produce salmon up in the far north, but now we are actually producing salmon far up in the north as well.”
The original concept proposal was for the open sea and required four units and 15 licenses. In the revised concept, NRS has proposed using a site at the mouth of a fjord with two units and 7.68 associated development licenses, the company said.
Because the project has been scaled down to about half of the original project size and the capital requirements have been significantly reduced, Aker has chosen not to move further into the pilot and realization phase. Aker Solutions will continue as a technology and collaboration partner in the project.
The facility will be significantly more exposed than current NRS locations. However, other environmental conditions on such sites are very attractive for salmon, with good water exchange that will ensure fish welfare, growth, and environmental sustainability, the company said.
Photo courtesy of Norway Royal Salmon
