SalMar now has full operation of the Marine Donut, with 200,000 salmon in the facility. We spoke with the project manager at Bluegreen, Geir Andresen, to hear about the experiences so far.
It’s a sun-kissed and cheerful Geir Andresen who meets us, so it's clear he hasn’t been too busy with Marine Donut during the summer holidays.
"Marine Donut has performed excellently this summer," says Andresen, satisfied. "The facility has delivered on all fish health parameters!"
The fish mortality has been minimal.
The fish are thriving. We can see this by how they are evenly distributed throughout the water volume and are feeding well.
There has been no lice infestation.
The feeding system is working well.
We have had short periods with slightly lower water temperatures in the facility than expected, which slightly reduced the fish's activity.
"That’s a known issue. We draw water from a depth of 40 meters. It maintains a consistent temperature of around 8°C year-round," explains Andresen. "This is in contrast to open net pens, which have warmer water temperatures in the summer and colder in the winter. The fish in Marine Donut will therefore have steady growth throughout the year."
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The focus now is on gaining operational experience and optimizing all parameters.
"Now that we are in full operation, we've identified the need to fine-tune the solution for sludge collection and dead fish handling. We are also working on optimizing the flow patterns, now that we can conduct real tests with fish in the facility instead of just simulations in a computer program. It’s very educational."
Marine Donut is approved for 1,100 metric biomass tons (MBT). As we approach this, a new test will be conducted with the removal of approximately 25,000 fish. The remaining fish will stay in the facility until they reach a slaughter weight of 5.5 kg, likely in October.
"It typically takes 90 days for growth from 2.5 to 5.5 kg," says Andresen. "Since this is the first batch in Marine Donut, we don’t yet know if it will happen faster in a controlled environment. It will be very exciting."
