Aerial view of the K3 pool at Andfjord Salmon in Kvalnes, Andøya, Norway, following the smolt release.
Photo: Andfjord Salmon.
Andfjord Salmon's pool K3 is now stocked with fish. The Norwegian land-based aquaculture company announced this week the successful release of approximately 550,000 smolts, with an average weight of around 110 grams each. The fish were transferred without incident to the pool from a wellboat.
"We have established a very gentle fish transfer process that once again incurred very few mortalities. The smolt's immediate pool adaptation looks good too," said Martin Rasmussen, CEO of Andfjord Salmon, commenting on the milestone.
The Norwegian land-based aquaculture company, which made its first smolt release in June 2022, four years ago, continues to advance in the expansion of its salmon farming operations in Kvalnes, Andøya, after securing a new contractor to complete the works last December.
This smolt release is the company's second milestone this month. Just two weeks ago, it reported that salmon in its two operational pools had passed important average weight thresholds, with fish in pool K0 reaching two kilograms and fish in pool K1 exceeding one kilogram.
Andfjord Salmon now stated that it expects the 550,000 smolts transferred to pool K3 to be used for post-smolt production on behalf of Eidsfjord Sjøfarm, as part of the strategic cooperation agreement with the aquaculture company announced in April, which first sale is taking place this month.
As the company noted in its release, the pool K3 is the third to come into operation at Kvalnes, following the smolt releases last year in pools K0—on 30 September, with approximately 350,000 smolt released—and K1—in November, with approximately 750,000 smolt.
"Initiating production in pool K3 is another building block towards our objective of large-scale fish farming at Kvalnes. Our aim is to replicate the strong biological conditions that we have demonstrated in the other pools we have in operation," Martin Rasmussen stated.
As Andfjord Salmon recalled in its statement, in its first production cycle, it achieved an industry-leading survival rate of 97.5%, a feed conversion ratio of 1.05, a superior quality product ratio of 91.1%, and required only 1 kWh to produce one kilogram of salmon.
Located, as mentioned, in Andøya, in Norway's Arctic archipelago of Vesterålen, the land-based aquaculture company combines the best of open-ocean and land-based salmon farming using its proprietary flow-through system. In its own words, it is developing "the world's most sustainable and fish-friendly aquaculture facility of its kind."
To further this objective, last December it raised NOK 300 million (EUR 25.7m / USD 27.9m) in new equity through a private placement, an amount that was supplemented in April by an additional NOK 385 million (EUR 35.1m / USD 41.3m) in another private placement after securing the strategic partnership on post-smolt mentioned above. In addition, Andfjord Salmon is pursuing a compensation claim exceeding NOK 1 billion (EUR 85.8m / USD 93.3m) against its former contractor.
