Former head of Norwegian Seafood Business Association Svein Reppe, and Biokraft CEO Håvard Wollan are among the inventors of the offshore cage”Big Dipper”. “We have developed what we believe is the best solution the world has seen so far”.
According to Teknisk Ukeblad, the patented concept has a diameter of 160m at its largest, and can produce between 15,000 and 20,000 tonnes of salmon a year. By comparison, SalMar’s “Ocean Farm 1” is 110m in diameter.
According to its patent application, the “offshore farming system comprises an elongated vertical support column floating vertically in water with a larger extension below sea surface than above the sea surface, and a rigid cage structure (300) enclosing the elongated vertical support column in circumferential direction and arranged movable in longitudinal direction of the elongated vertical support column”.
Svein Reppe described the idea, which was conceived during an aquaculture conference in Trondheim 2017 that the concept was like fishing with a float and rod.
“It’s the same concept. It takes a lot of time before the dip falls flat, or goes down without any fish on the hook,” he said.
You can read more about how the offshore cage works on the Patent Office’s website.
There are currently no construction plans for the concept. But Håvard Wollan, who is the CEO of Biokraft (which produces biogas from dead farmed salmon), is aiming high.
“What we can see so far is that we have had a great time. And that we have developed what we believe is the best solution the world has seen so far,” said Wollan to Teknisk Ukeblad.
