What a beautiful and inspiring day on the water in Norway!
While the Saint John group continued to make its way across the Atlantic Ocean, the rest of our Mission crew hit the water bright and early today for a full-day tour of some of Norway’s most innovative aquaculture facilities.
First stop was Leroy’s Belsvik Hatchery, one of the largest and most technologically advanced hatcheries in the world.
This operation stocks 14,000,000 smolt (100g) or 1,120 tonnes. Grow-out time is nine months with five cycles and 2.5+ million smolt per cycle. Built in 2013, this RAS facility has 98% water re-use. The company delivers the fish to their own farms that use 157 metre net pens.
Next stop was Salmar’s processing plant InnovaMar, the largest and most efficient facility of its kind in the world. Built in 2010 at a cost of $70 million (Euros), this plant’s 600 workers processes 150,000 metric tonnes of farmed salmon every year – 120mt per minute. The company is building a new plant, similar size in Northern Norway. Production time is quick – about 100 minutes from the fish’s arrival at the plant to being in the box. And ninety minutes of that is spent in a tank, putting production time at about 10 minutes.
Our SJ crew was disappointed to miss such great tours, but incredibly happy to land in Norway after about 48 hours of travel, numerous delays, lost luggage and a misplaced passport. The name of the town where we are staying put a smile on our tired faces – Hell. Yep, we are literally staying in Hell. Jokes ensued of course. “We went through Hell to get to Hell.”
Plus normal conversation suddenly becomes funny when you visit Hell.
“Where are you going? I’m taking the bus to Hell!”
“See you later in Hell!”
“Would you like to join me for a drink in Hell?”
We’ll have much more to report on aquaculture innovations in Norway as the week continues.
On the agenda for tomorrow: the official opening of AquaNor in Trondheim. Stay tuned for a full report!
Until then, #AquaMission2017 will remain in Hell!
Memos from the Mission 