On Thursday, the closed cage The Egg was shown on the quay at Herde Kompositt in Kvinnherad, Norway. The world’s first farmed egg is 21 meters high, 15 meters wide and will hold 100,000 farmed salmon.
Before the summer, the Egg will be put into production in the Norwegian fjord Romsdalsfjorden. The floating, closed fish farm represents a completely new solution to the salmon industry’s biggest problems; salmon lice, escapes, pollution and area efficiency.
“The main guest today is the salmon. We want to give the farmed salmon a good life inside the egg, but also the wild salmon outside the egg,” founder Cato Lyngøy said.
“The egg is the answer to the next generation’s expectations of our industry. There is salmon in the house, a solid, lasting farm building, which keeps the salmon inside and the lice outside, but also a farming environment that gives the salmon the best opportunities to grow and thrive,” he elaborated.
The company changes its name
For several years, Lyngøy has worked to combat lice and escapes in the salmon industry as a veterinarian. He got the idea for the Egg ten years ago. He quit his job at Mowi and founded the innovation company Hauge Aqua, to develop the idea further. Later, the technology part was separated into its own subsidiary Hauge Aqua Solutions.
Now that the Egg is ready, Hauge Aqua is using the opportunity to change the name of the technology part of the company to Ovum, which means “egg” in Latin.
“We change our name to Ovum to prepare the technology company for growth as its own independent business,” Lyngøy said.
Solution for the future for salmon farming?
Production of the first Egg started in the early summer of 2021 in Ølve. Behind the development is a professionally strong team at Ovum and Herde Kompositt, who have worked with composites for several decades.
“There will be a launch at the end of May. After the technical sea tests and function testing, the egg will be transported on a barge to Romsdalsfjorden. It will be located at Gjermundnes and operated by Prophylaxia,” Lyngøy said.
The egg is 21 meters high and 15 meters wide and will hold 100,000 smolts. In comparison, the full-scale egg will be 44 meters high and 31 meters wide, with room for one million farmed salmon. In the future, five more full-scale eggs will be produced for the development project.
“Salmon are Norway’s most important domestic animals. It creates enormous value for Norway. The Veterinary Institute states that more than 50 million salmon die each year in the sea phase and that Norwegian farmed salmon has a lifestyle problem. We must make arrangements for the salmon to change their lifestyle. It must also not only survive, but thrive. That is our responsibility. We believe that closed farming in the Egg is part of the answer to this,” Lyngøy said.
