Canadian equipment supplier Poseidon has a plan in place to handle the challenges that fish farmers are increasingly seeing: algae, jellyfish and lice.
Around 1.9 million salmon died as a result of the spring algal bloom in Northern Norway, based on information from farmers in the area. Six years earlier, in 2019, things were even worse. Then, seven million salmon died from algal blooms in the same region.
Before that, we have to go back to the transition between the 80s and 90s, when Southern and Western Norway were hit by several large toxic algae blooms. The worst was in the early summer of 1988, when 75 fish farms, fleeing from toxic algae, were towed into fjord arms in Hordaland, as described in the book “Goldfinger – The Story of Mowi”.
In other producing countries, the algae problem is significantly greater than in Norway. At least it has been historically. Perhaps the most famous is the large bloom in Chile in the spring of 2016. Then 25 million fish were lost in the so-called Red Tide .
Air moves water
One person who has worked extensively on this issue is Jamie Gaskill. He was at Stolt Sea Farm Canada when Marit Solberg brought him to Mowi. Here he became, as the first and only foreigner, regional director of Mowi South. He has also led Mowi Canada. Jamie Gaskill still speaks “a little Norwegian” after his three years in Norway. He now works as a manager for equipment supplier Poseidon Ocean Systems, in Campbell River on Vancouver Island.
– Poseidon was started in 2015 by a former colleague, Matt Clark. He left Mowi before me, to start his own company. They started selling cages and moorings, which he had been doing internally at Mowi. Low oxygen levels and algae blooms – Mowi has a long history of using skirts, air and oxygenation. Poseidon started doing a lot of that work. Not just for Mowi, but also Cermaq and Grieg, says Gaskill.
The method is aeration – using air to move water.
– Compressors were used before. They were not designed for farming. They have high pressure, to drive drilling machines and tools. We move water with a Flowpressor . In a smolt facility, water is moved with low pressure, zero to three bar, while tools use high pressure, seven plus bar. But in the middle is no man's land . You need flow , not such high pressure. They developed a compressor, called Flowpressor, that moves a lot of water with low pressure – with low energy.
The flowpressor is powered by a diesel engine or shore power. The equipment is built on a raft next to the cages, almost like Lego blocks.
– This is about the fact that the ocean is getting worse and worse. Everywhere. All the time. To varying degrees. So what can be done to tip the balance in the fish's favor, and give the farmer an increased degree of control? asks Gaskill.
Strategic
iLaks meets him at Marineholmen in Bergen, together with Arild Heggland, the sales manager of the partner in Norway, Fjord Miljø.
– We do a lot in Chile. We made a strategic decision in 2021 to invest in Chile, so it is our largest export market now. We work in New Zealand, in Tasmania. And we have now built our 100th Flowpressor.
Market opportunities, based on biological and climatic challenges, exist in all salmon-producing regions globally.
– Conditions are getting worse and worse. Fish welfare is a growing public concern, also in Norway. Winter wounds, jellyfish, pathogens. We see the trends. With fish farming you get a lot for free from nature – temperatures and water currents – but you also face challenges. Lice, jellyfish, algae, low oxygen. It leads to high mortality and low productivity. This is a four billion dollar problem.
One of the drivers is climate change.
– Just look at Northern Norway last year, which saw summer temperatures go from 13 to 17 degrees, points out Gaskill.
Smolt yield
– I think yield per smolt is the most important number in farming that no one talks about. The global average is 3.5 kilograms per fish. The potential is higher – at least five kilograms or more. It is the ultimate measure of welfare, because it captures both growth and survival in one number, says the old Mowi top.
– We generally see that the yield has remained steady, but the smolt size has increased. The farmers are investing in smolt size to cover the effect of the environment. It is a game of geography. And the Faroe Islands have the best conditions.
Poseidon has developed what they call an integrated Life Support System.
– It doesn't take much yield gain to pay for the technology. We also have our own cages, Trident, but it's not necessary for the Life Support System. It will work on all cages.
– Deep skirts were developed in British Columbia 25 years ago to deal with algae. Then Norway started with shorter skirts to deal with lice. But 6-8 meter skirts don't do the job. You still get lice. But you can use that skirt against jellyfish, algae, against a whole lot of things. But then you give up something that nature has given you for free, namely water flow through the cage. So we use air to replace volume and create turnover. And you get free oxygen too because you're moving the water, he continues.
Power
Poseidon uses both air and oxygenation – with or without a skirt.
“When people talk about RAS, land-based and closed facilities… sea cages are not dead yet. There is a lot you can do,” he says.
– We have 40 employees in Canada, 25 in Chile, and expect to have a turnover of 16 million (Canadian) dollars this year. We did an issue in 2024, of 20 million US dollars, to invest in growth. Our main investor is Ecosystem Integrity in San Francisco.
He makes no secret of the fact that the Poseidon system needs energy.
– You have to have a diesel generator if you don't have shore power. 75 percent of the world's fish farms are still off the grid. If the fish gain 300 grams more weight – what does that mean for price achievement, earnings, fish welfare, energy utilization? he asks the leader.
– But back to the algae. How would you handle such a toxic algal bloom as we have seen in Northern Norway this year?
– The first thing is to realize that there is a problem. Now there was an algal bloom recently, and then there was one in 2019. There is probably some algal bloom every year. But they don't kill the same amount of fish. The algae are different, some are toxic. They don't kill the fish, but they create stress and they get gill damage. And it goes on without you seeing it, if you don't have a plan for harmful algae monitoring, says Gaskill.
– In some places, the algae problems are chronic, like in British Columbia. Here, 100 percent of the staff goes through algae training and gets certified every single year. Chile too. It comes up everywhere there. Scotland the same. They have an “organic soup” every summer.
Context
– If you see that the problems are in the area, a level that can harm the fish, you can use skirts, if the water flow is not too strong, and air or oxygenation, he continues.
– The same region (Northern Norway) is now affected by ISA. Maybe there is a connection? Is the fish's immune system stressed? Arild Heggland asks rhetorically.
“Stress accumulates in the fish. It just builds up,” says Gaskill. “In my career, I’ve been responsible for over 100 million salmon. And I’ve seen a few million die on my watch. There’s no more helpless feeling than watching fish die when you don’t have the right tools to handle it if something bad happens.”
– Norway has a long coastline. Some places have fantastic conditions and will never need anything. Some have a challenge. Some have a challenge a few times a year. Some have multiple challenges several times a year. Nature will just keep throwing curve balls, predicts Gaskill.
