Mowi Canada West is trialling novel technologies developed by Poseidon Ocean Systems at its Monday Rock salmon farm off Vancouver Island, the companies have announced.
The collaboration sees Poseidon testing a selection of its technologies with Mowi, with the aim of improving fish welfare and performance, and reducing interactions between wild and farm-raised fish.
To achieve this, Poseidon Ocean Systems has equipped Mowi's salmon farm with 15 meter-deep barrier shields, in addition to perimeter air bubble curtains, oxygen systems and real-time environmental monitoring technology. This will ensure the salmon farmer can maintain optimal growing conditions "24/7", Poseidon says, as well as helping to avoid other naturally occurring threats to fish health, including plankton blooms, hypoxia, and sea lice.
"Three quarters of the farm's enclosure is physically separated from the surrounding environment to a depth of 15 metres, so this technology developed by Poseidon is critical to allow us to create healthy living conditions within the space where we raise our salmon," said Mowi technical manager Rodrigo Cristi, commenting on the initiative in a statement.
"The salmon have been growing in the system for six months now and fish condition, which includes size and health, are looking very promising so far."
According to Poseidon Ocean Systems, these aquaculture technologies "help sustain a life-supporting ecosystem inside a space largely separated from the surrounding environment".
The company says that their system is innovative in ensuring maximum efficiency and thus saving energy and reducing emissions, by enabling the farmer to produce the correct amount of oxygen as required.
The technologies "Flowpressor and "Oxypressor", produce a high rate of oxygen flow, while the patent-pending "Depth Charge" system fully dissolves the supplied oxygen into the water. This, Poseidon says, means oxygen is continuously available for the fish while ensuring that none is wasted.
"Our company has been focused on developing our integrated technology platform which gives farmers more control over the farm environment; allowing for better control the conditions within the net pens, so that the farmers can more actively and positively affect the welfare of the fish they grow," said Matt Clarke, Co-Founder and CTO at Poseidon.
"Since our company was founded in 2015, Poseidon has been focused on bringing a science-based, aquaculture-specific approach to this challenge and the system now installed at Mowi's farm site was developed by our engineers for this application."
The companies note that the salmon raised at Monday Rocks will to be ready for market in the second quarter of 2024.
Poseidon Ocean Systems (Poseidon) is a Canadian full-service aquaculture engineering and technology provider. Poseidon specializes in fish welfare and life support systems. The company is headquartered in Campbell River, Canada with an additional office in Puerto Montt, Chile.
