Financial pain of oxygen shortage ‘limited’ says Atlantic Sapphire

On Friday the on-land salmon farmer informed the stock market that it is carrying out a controlled harvest of 100,000 fish at sub-optimal weights its Florida Bluehouse facility because of the shortage, and has also paused feeding.

But on Sunday night the company said it had sourced a supply of non-medical grade of liquid oxygen from Miami-Dade County’s wastewater treatment plants.

Oxygen tanks never empty

Speaking at an online briefing this afternoon, Andreassen said: “At no time have the oxygen tanks been empty.”

He added that the new source of liquid oxygen was marginally cheaper than the company’s normal supply, but there was an added cost of hiring a truck and certified drivers to collect it.

“The biggest cost is that we are not producing biomass,” said Andreassen, who said the oxygen situation would continue to be closely monitored.

He added that Atlantic Sapphire had the option to cool the fish tanks below 10°C to stop growth.

Asked how much it cost to cool the water, and to provide oxygen for the fish, he said: “We expect that electricity will be 8 kilowatt hours (kWh) for every kilo of salmon.” He added that electricity in Florida costs around 7-8 cents per kWh, while oxygen costs were between 10-20 cents per kilo.

Regaining market confidence

Millions of dollars were wiped off Atlantic Sapphire’s market value last week when it revealed news of its problems and a net loss of $51,538 million for the first half of 2021.

“Our job is to regain the confidence of the markets,” said Andreassen, who explained that more recent generations of Bluehouse fish were growing better because there weren’t exposed to construction noise that had stressed earlier crops and caused early maturation in some.

“Things are looking much better than they used to be,” he said.