Fiizk buys up water filtration specialist AkvaFresh
Norwegian fish farming supplier Fiizk, which makes floating semi-closed cage systems (SCCS), has acquired water filtration expert AkvaFresh.
In land-based farming, AkvaFresh focuses on the filtration of intake water for increased biosecurity and to improve the quality of intake in recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) facilities. Both ultrafiltration and nanofiltration can be used on raw water (fresh / brackish / sea) to improve the water quality in a land-based plant.
For sea-based farming, AkvaFresh uses nanofiltration to deliver a water quality that gives optimal efficacy when bathing salmon against sea lice and amoebic gill disease.
Desalination
Fiizk’s Scotland-based fish health and development manager, Ashleigh Currie, said Fiizk intends to utilise AkvaFresh’s technology in its SCCS but that a more immediate benefit for marine farming would be the ability to desalinate seawater for freshwater tarpaulin baths. Fresh water is a sparse resource in some areas where salmon are farmed.
The acquisition will also expand Fiizk’s land-based offering, which currently includes design of on-land farms, light control tents and supporting steelwork, walkways, ventilation and insulation.
Fiizk comprises technical tarpaulins makers Botngaard and NWP, and aquaculture software providers Infront-X and SHM Enabling Technologies.
NWP (Norwegian Weather Protection) become a wholly owned subsidiary of Fiizk in December last year.
Sea lice
Fiizk’s SCCS technology comprises a collar with an impermeable fabric outer bag and a net inner. Water is drawn from a depth below level where sea lice, which parasitise salmon, are found, and is filtered for extra security.
Japanese-owned salmon farmer Cermaq has Fiizk semi-closed cages on trial in Norway and British Columbia, Canada, and Faroese farmer HiddenFjord has ordered three Fiizk Certus 15000 cages to grow post-smolts from an average weight of 650g to a size of 2kg before stocking them in net pens.
This will reduce the time spent in net pens from 12-14 months to between four and six months, and may completely remove the need for HiddenFjord to treat its fish for lice.
