Smolt facility up and running ahead of time

A recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) smolt plant built for Salten Smolt is now fully operational, ahead of schedule. The RAS facility was built by specialist supplier Pure Salmon Kaldnes, at a site at Breivik near Bødø, Norway. It houses 5.5 million fry in a 9,000 sq metre fish farm. Salten Smolt, which is owned by Salten Aqua AS, Wenberg Fiskeoppdrett AS and Edelfarm AS, already operates a smolt plant next door and a feeding plant in the neighbouring municipality of Saltdal. The Breivik project was procured with a total budget of NOK 600m (£49m), the largest investment so far for the Salten Aqua group. The company’s production of smolt per year has now tripled from 400 tonnes to 1,200 tonnes. The site includes two flow-through hatcheries and five RAS departments with complete over-ground and underground piping systems, pumps with all technical equipment, including feeding systems, as well as an advanced automation system Salten Aqua’s CEO, CEO of Salten Aqua, Jarle Solemdal said: “Pure Salmon Kaldnes not only delivered on time, but they actually delivered prior to deadline. That is not necessarily normal practice for our industry.” Pure Salmon Kaldnes was formed last year when water industry multinational Veolia sold its RAS arm, Kruger Kaldnes, to land-based fish farmer Pure Salmon. [caption id="attachment_116262" align="alignnone" width="267"] Jarle Solemdal, CEO Salten Aqua[/caption]