Mowi’s Oyvind Oaland on post-smolt and smart farming at NASF.
Mowi’s Chief Operating Officer, Øyvind Oaland, outlined the company’s approach to post-smolt production and smart farming at the North Atlantic Seafood Forum (NASF) in Bergen on Tuesday, emphasising improvements in survival, welfare, and productivity.
As part of this push the company will be investing heavily in technology.
Mowi currently has nearly 80 lice-zapping robots in operation with plans to scale up to 250 units by the end of the year, Oaland told the audience at NASF.
“We’re happy and proud that Mowi have decided to use more lasers going forward,” Stingray General Manager John Arne Breivik told SalmonBusiness. “Stingray develops fast and the increased commitment from the world’s largest salmon farmer is a joint effort to improve fish welfare for millions of salmon. This is an important progress for Mowi, Stingray and the industry.”
Stingray, founded in 2012, has been a pioneer in developing technology that monitors and protects around 60 million individual salmon and trout globally. The company’s systems are currently utilized by over 30 producers across more than 70 locations and up to 900 pens.
Cermaq is also investing heavily in technology, particularly in laser-based lice control. “We have 85% coverage of our sites in Finnmark and Nordland with lasers and aim to reach 100% coverage in Finnmark and Nordland by 2026,” said Harald Takle, Head of Strategy and Seawater Innovation at Cermaq.
Results from sites with 80-90% laser coverage showed a 47% reduction in cage treatments, while sites with two or three lasers per cage saw an 80% reduction in lice treatments.
“This is really good and gives us hope for the future,” Takle told NASF.
SalMar are also having success with lasers, Head of IR, Håkon Husby told NASF, highlighting how even having them at just a few sites in a region helped release overall lice pressure.
