Agrimarine Industries/Grieg Seafoods

• Project Description
• Performance Indicators and Measures
• Picture Gallery
• Final Report

Agrimarine Industries (Agrimarine) and Grieg Seafoods (Grieg) are partners in a land-based grow-out facility in Cedar (near Nanaimo) on Vancouver Island.

The facility itself consists of eight circular, cement tanks. Each tank is 48 ft wide and 18 ft deep and holds 750,000 (750 m3) litres of water. Seawater is pumped into the tanks through a series of pipes and valves.

Project Description

Agrimarine’s pilot project involved trials of a land-based system for growing Atlantic, Coho and Chinook salmon.  It sought to provide insights into the biological, economic, and structural issues associated with raising fish using such a system, and to compare results with similar measures for conventional net-cage systems.  A major focus for this project was the economic utility of rearing fish in high enough densities to offset higher production costs associated with this production method.

Agrimarine continues to evaluate the merits of this technology at the Cedar site.

For more detailed information about this project, please see the report.

Performance Indicators and Measures

Economic performance is the principle factor that limits the viability of land-based production facilities and therefore is the primary performance indicator. Capital and operating factors that will influence the viability of the land-based project include:

• Land value;
• Construction costs;
• Oxygen and oxygen delivery technology; and
• Pumps and pumping costs.

Sources of potential increases in production revenues relative to traditional net-pen technologies include:

• Increased survival;
• Lower conversion factors;
• Higher rearing densities; and
• Lower stress levels.

Picture Gallery

	(click for larger image)
Large Circular Cement Tank
View Inside An Empty Tank
Oxygen Tanks Used To Deliver Oxygen
Underwater Cameras Are Used To Monitor Inside Tank

 

Updated: 2 Feb, 2006