View of Andfjord Salmon's K1 pool in Kvalnes, Andøya, Norway, following this week's smolt release.
Photo: Andfjord Salmon Group.
Andfjord Salmon Group announced that its recently completed K1 pool in Kvalnes, Andøya, Norway, now has fish following the successful completion of the smolt transfer this week.
The approximately 750,000 smolt released, with an average weight of around 160 grams, have been carefully transferred from a live fish transport vessel to the K1 pool. According to the company, the fish have quickly adapted to their new seawater flow-through environment.
The pool K1 is the first new pool in the ongoing expansion phase, which will add three more adjacent pools. Andfjord Salmon's plan for the future is to eventually have a total of 12 pools, arranged in two parallel rows, on the Kvalnes land area that has already been excavated.
"Initiating fish farming operations in the first new pool of this build-out phase is a crucial operational and commercial milestone for Andfjord Salmon. It demonstrates our ability to replicate large-scale flow-through systems and, more importantly, ramps up our fish farming operations considerably," said Martin Rasmussen, CEO of Andfjord Salmon.
Andfjord salmon farm project in Kvalnes, with the pilot pool in the background, the 12 planned pools in the foreground, and the harbour area marked on the left.
Likewise, the land-based salmon farming company also noted that biological conditions in the K0 pool remain excellent. This pool received approximately 350,000 smolts, with an average weight of 180 grams, on September 30, marking the start of what the company described at the time as a significant expansion of its fish farming operations.
Just 20 days later, coinciding with the completion of the K1 pool, Andfjord Salmon confirmed that these fish had achieved a survival rate of 99.97%, while their weight had increased by approximately 45% since their release, representing a biological performance that exceeded expectations.
As reported by WeAreAquaculture a month ago, when the Norwegian aquaculture company announced that experienced construction industry executive Gro Skaar Knutsen was leaving its Board of Directors to take up a senior operational role overseeing construction work at the company's main development facility in Kvalnes, Andfjord Salmon's latest production cycle ended in June 2023.
Since then, it has been developing new pools, harbour facilities, and waterways to support large-scale farming, and announced a revised build-out plan that would see it increase production capacity by 20%. According to the company, the Kvalnes site in Andøya is being built to handle a future capacity of about 48,100 tonnes of salmon (HOG plus post-smolt).