Fresh approach: hatchery and fish farm to rely on desalinated water
An on-land fish farm that will produce 45,000 tonnes of salmon and trout per year and will rely entirely on desalination for its freshwater needs is being planned in Norway.
Eco Seafood is proposing an egg-to-pack facility on the island of Kråkøya in Nærøysund municipality in Trøndelag, reports one of Fish Farming Expert’s sister sites, Landbased AQ.
The company has applied to build a plant which would produce 9.2 million hatchery fish of approximately 130 grams, corresponding to 1,200 tonnes, and 45,000 tonnes of salmon and rainbow trout of up to 5 kilos.
RAS, reuse and flow-through
In the long term, Eco Seafood intends to encompass the entire production process from a hatchery and smolt plant to finished fish and processing.
Seawater for the plant will be taken in by establishing a water intake east of the southern part of Kråkøya.
In the hatchery, recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) technology will be used, in the post-smolt facility, water reuse technology (FTS-R) will be used, and in the grow-out facility, a combination of flow-through and water reuse will be applied.
Seawater
The company plans to intake and discharge seawater of up to 1,890 m³/min in connection with the facility. The facility’s assumed freshwater requirement is calculated at an average of 1,200 litres per minute and up to 1,450 l/min but could be both higher and lower.
“All fresh water is planned to be covered by desalination of sea water,” the company states in the application documents.
The Directorate of Fisheries Region Midt writes in a statement to the application that it considers that the new hatchery and grow-out facilities will not entail any increased negative effect on fisheries interests in terms of land use in the sea area outside the site.
Nærøysund municipality also has no comments on the application from Eco Seafood.
