SalMar salmon farm. (Photo: SalMar)

SalMar's subsidiary to install first offshore aquaculture rig worldwide

SalMar Group has set up Ocean Farming AS intended to develop an offshore fish farm rig in an attempt to use new locations offering good biological conditions to boost aquaculture.

To carry out this initiative, the Group has been allocated a site at Frohavet, off the coast of central Norway and Ocean Farming has received grants from Innovation Norway to help fund the concept development phase.

The Group’s executives commented that the operational experience gained from this pilot facility will be fed back into commercial production of this type of offshore fish farming installation.

“Through the development and implementation of new technologies and the build-up of operational experience, Ocean Farming will acquire the specialist expertise needed for this next generation of fish farming facilities to achieve its potential,” the Group’s release pointed out.

The feasibility studies for the project, consisting of using areas that are less affected by tidal currents and where the direction of currents is more constant, started in 2012, and over the past three years various technical solutions have been evaluated.

The project developers explained that the pilot facility is generic in its configuration, which means that while individual installations may have the same overall design, they must be certified/adapted to the prevailing weather and environmental conditions at their intended locations.

Technicians involved in the initiative highlighted that all fish handling operations can be performed on board, without recourse to external service vessels or equipment and that the facility is equipped with one moveable and two fixed bulkheads so that it can be divided into three separate compartments, enabling different fish-related operations to be performed.

The eight point mooring system will be delivered by Rolls-Royce and includes monitoring, fairleads, connectors and subsea load sensing system.

The new semi-submersible rig will be constructed at Qingdao Wuchuan Heavy Industry Co. Ltd in China, and is designed by Global Maritime in Norway. The installation, which is fully automated to eliminate heavy manual operations, will normally be operated by a crew of 3-4 people, who will also monitor the facility. 

Another benefit offered by the pilot installation is the possibility it offers for the performance of R&D activities, with particular focus on biological conditions and fish welfare. In this way it will help to promote the further advancement of the aquaculture industry through applied research and development.

The pilot semi-submersible fish farm is planned to be completed by the second half of 2017.

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Address:	Industriveien 51,
City:	Kverva
State/ZIP:	(NO-7266)
Country:	Norway
Phone:	+47 7244 7900
Fax:	+47 7244 7901
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