Norwegian salmon harvesting company Nordlaks has reported that its new semi-closed pen has received its first stock of fish.
Named Storbåtsegga, the structure was designed by Norwegian naval architecture firm NSK Ship Design and constructed by Turkish shipbuilder Gemak.
A total of 68,464 fish with an average weight of 5.1 kg were delivered tp the pen from the neighbouring locality of Brottøy.
Since the facility arrived in Vesterålen in November last year, work has been done to complete all the systems so that it would be ready to release fish.
Storbåtsegga was completed as a semi-closed production tank with a capacity of 3,120 tons of live salmon. The unit has a tight roof and walls down to 20 metres below sea level. The tight construction will prevent lice and disease microbes, which mostly move in the top layer of the sea, from getting to the fish.
The structure has also been developed to prevent the escape of fish, as all materials in the construction have a completely different strength than those on most fish cages with open nets.
Through a manually controlled water exchange system, adapted to the strong ocean currents at the site, continuous access to fresh, oxygen-rich seawater is ensured. At the same time, the open bottom construction means that fish excrement is distributed naturally with the sea current.
