InnovaSea Systems has purchased Laksevåg, Norway-based Nortek Akvakultur, upping the technological capabilities of the firm, which designs open-ocean aquaculture systems.
InnovaSea CEO David Kelly said Nortek will be combined with InnovaSea’s Realtime Aquaculture unit to create the newly-formed InnovaSea instrumentation team. Realtime Aquaculture has developed underwater wireless technology for monitoring aquaculture sites.
“Nortek Akvakultur brings us closer to the industry in Norway and adds a team of skilled developers with unique expertise developing solutions for the industry,” Kelly said. “Combining Realtime Aquaculture and Nortek Akvakultur is a logical step in growing the business and expanding opportunities both in Norway and globally.”
With more than 300 sites in every major aquaculture production region in Norway, Nortek provides environmental data, such as ocean current and wave measurements, to the Norwegian aquaculture industry.
Nortek CEO Atle Lohrmann said the technologies of the two companies would work well together.
“Nortek’s early transition to cloud-based systems has allowed us to successfully deploy hundreds of monitoring stations with a minimum of local effort. We are pleased to see how InnovaSea brings continued technological innovation to the community by using underwater communication as part of the solution."
Nortek recently moved its operations from Oslo to Bergen in order to get closer to the aquaculture industry’s base in Norway, Nortek Managing Director Tor Skoglund said.
“This acquisition further strengthens our position by providing access to new technology that we believe can be a game-changer as we work to help our customers monitor conditions in every cage,” Skoglund said.
InnovaSea, based in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A., previously bolstered its technological capabilities with its purchase of Amirix Systems in 2017.
And in April 2017, the company announced it secured a USD 15 million (EUR 12.6 million) investment from Cuna del Mar to develop an all-inclusive open ocean fish farming system scheduled for a 2018 rollout.
Photo courtesy of InnovaSea
