Aerial view of the Marine Donut in Romsdal Fjord.
Bluegreen Group.
Bluegreen Group is working with SalMar to move the Marine Donut out of its development phase and into full commercial use, with the facility now being reconfigured for post-smolt production.
The facility, a floating closed containment system which was acquired by SalMar in September 2022, is currently deployed near Molde, in Møre og Romsdal, Norway. Until now, the Marine Donut has operated under a development licence, mainly producing food fish. Bluegreen said experience from full-scale trials has given the two companies practical knowledge about fish performance, daily operations and the system’s structure - information which is now being used to prepare the unit for ordinary production.
“The transition from a development license to ordinary operations means that the facility must be adapted to its intended use. Post-smolt production places different demands on the system than food fish production, particularly in terms of the number of individuals and fish size,” said Henrik Thorstensen, CTO at Bluegreen, via a news release.
Post-smolt production involves keeping a higher number of smaller fish in the system, which requires changes to be made to fish barriers, including smaller mesh sizes and stricter containment measures, Bluegreen said.
Bluegreen confirmed that SalMar plans to use the Marine Donut to produce post-smolt in the spring, before transferring the fish to open sea sites for final grow-out. Using closed technology at this stage reduces exposure to the surrounding environment and gives farmers more control during an important phase of the production cycle, the company argues.
“Marine Donut has delivered very strong results during the development phase. The work we are doing now is about taking the technology into regular operations and adapting it to new applications. This marks an important step in the continued commercialization of the solution,” Thorstensen said.
The technology company said it is now carrying out technical reviews and making the necessary adjustments to ready the unit for stocking up to one million fish.