Arctic Seafarm began fish production at its land-based salmon facility in Nesna in Norway’s Nordland County with the stocking of 86,000 smolt on Wednesday, October 21.
The stocking followed the company's takeover of the first completed portion of the facility from its contractor. That portion comprises the smolt section, the water intake system, and associated support functions.
Arctic Seafarm said it would increase production over the coming year while construction of the rest of the facility continues.
CEO Magnus Kibsgaard said the next phase will focus on operations, fish welfare, and a controlled ramp-up of production.
The flow-through facility draws filtered seawater from the Helgeland coast and is designed to handle production from smolt to slaughter.
Totalbetong started concrete work in January 2025. It said the programme was compressed so that fish could enter the facility before the whole project was finished.
Water treatment includes 57 degassing towers, which remove CO2 and nitrogen from approximately 55,000 cubic metres of seawater per hour.
Eksfin is providing up to NOK450 million (US$48 million) in investment financing alongside DNB, which arranged the transaction and leads the lending syndicate. Eksfin gaves the first-phase production target as approximately 10,000 tonnes of salmon annually.
