Salmon farmer invests millions to improve aquaculture sustainability

Grieg Seafood BC Ltd. will employ ‘underwater eyes’ at its BC salmon farms for improved sustainability

By SeaWestNews

Grieg Seafood BC Ltd. (Grieg) has entered in an agreement with OptoScale to provide nine camera sensor units for use at its salmon farms located along both the east and west coast of Vancouver Island in BC.

The units provide real-time insight and data regarding the performance and growth of farmed salmon populations, which up until now, has only been available to this degree of accuracy after harvesting of the farm has been completed.

“We started trialing the cameras at one of our farms this past summer, and have been pleased with the real-time data the system provides, which in turn, has allowed for better decision making by our farmers in regard to feeding, harvest schedules and biomass estimation,” said Rocky Boschman, Managing Director for Grieg Seafood BC Ltd. in a press release.

“By allowing us to measure the actual size of the fish to a 98 per cent accuracy, we can now use that information to determine if we are over or underfeeding our fish – something we had previously only been able to calculate after the entire pen had been harvested.”

The cameras will be in place at nine Grieg farms in early 2022.

Grieg Seafood BC Ltd. is headquartered in Campbell River, BC and employs approximately 180 fulltime employees, mainly located in the rural coastal communities in which it operates.

Last month, Grieg  committed an additional $11 million annually in its continued commitment to reducing sea lice populations, while also reducing overall medication and chemical use.

It entered into a three-year contract with Njord Marine Service Ltd. for the service of the Coastal Server, a 24-metre all-purpose vessel which has also been fitted with a SkaMik 1.5 mechanical delousing system. The vessel and delousing system will be used for sea lice management by Grieg at its farms on both the east and west coasts of Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast.

The SkaMik 1.5 delousing system uses a combination of soft rotating brushes and low-pressure water nozzles to remove sea lice, without the use of chemicals or medication. Aside from critical delousing, the vessel will also be able to provide regular maintenance support.

The mechanical delousing system can be used on fish of all sizes, and is able to treat up to 150 metric tonnes of fish per hour under ideal conditions. The entire treatment time per fish, from the time they enter the intake, until they are returned to the farm, is about 1.5 seconds.

(image of the MV Coastal Server courtesy of Greig Seafood BC)