The Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Fisheries has approved Norway’s first development concession enabling local firm Ocean Farming AS to build the world’s first automated ‘exposed’ aquaculture facility.
Situated outside of Trondheim, midway along Norway’s western coast, the Ocean Farming facility overcomes the challenges of more traditional inshore fish farming facilities by being located in deeper waters, further from the coast.
The submerged, anchored fixed structure will float steady in the exposed ocean and is suitable for waters 100-300m deep, where conditions more closely match those of the fish’s natural environment, resulting in healthier (Ed: and one would assume, tastier) fish. For instance, the steady currents limit exposure to sea lice infection. The facility is fully automated with a 3-4 personnel needed to monitor normal operation. It can also be remotely operated.
The project brings together technology from the Norwegian fish farming industry and the offshore oil and gas sector. Kongsberg Maritime was the turnkey supplier. The farm itself is monitored by a Kongsberg K-Chief 600 automation system, of the type more commonly found on board commercial cargo ships. The company also provided an extensive telecoms and positioning package, based on its Maritime Broadband Radio (MBR) system and Motion Reference Units (MRU), respectively.
Below the water, it supplied a range of sensors systems, including a Simrad EK80 scientific echo sounder, a range of underwater cameras and an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP), velocimeter and oxygen sensors. Their purpose is to accurately detect where the fish are in the vast water volume of the cage and how they move in order to ensure effective feeding. In addition, a 3D display of the fish and relevant environmental parameters will be provided to the operators.
The project will be the first in the world to combine marine engineering, marine cybernetics and marine biology via a ‘big data’ approach fusing all the available underwater sensors and in this way offer decision support systems for the operators controlling and monitoring the feeding of the salmon and the overall physical environment of the sea, the company outlined.
“With greater focus on biology and nurturing healthier fish, the concept delivers significantly improved yields that will prove important in the decades to come as part of Norway’s strategy to leverage its aquaculture and offshore expertise to meet the challenges of accelerating population growth and the pressures this places on the world’s food supply chain,” commented Kongsberg Maritime president Egil Haugsdal.
“To succeed in placing fish farming in exposed areas as a viable solution to address the food gap challenge, we need to integrate and harmonise a wide range of maritime and offshore technologies, for the fish farm itself and the new vessels that will serve it. This is a unique, highly technical project where we will transfer our technology base and knowledge of developing for oil & gas production units and the most sophisticated vessels to provide high levels of automation and control,” added Thor Hukkelås, an engineer in the company’s aquaculture operations team.
