New lice collector being called “a simple and effective tool”.
As part of the shipping company Remøy Management, Robert Søviknes is primarily engaged in delousing for the aquaculture industry. In recent months he has been one of the very few who have been able to try out the new NS Collector, launched in the Norwegian market by aquaculture supplier Vard Aqua.
“This is completely new because it introduces an efficient and simple method of collecting lice,” he said.
Ready for sale
“We are experiencing great interest in the lice collector and are receiving requests from customers who want to see it in use. Because it takes lice that are in open water, it is a tool we believe everyone needs and which we have great faith in,” said Vard Aqua sales manager Svein Arve Tronsgård.
He said that the NS Collector is now ready for the market after thorough testing and development.
“In a standard cage, 50 metres in diameter, there is approximately 10,000 m³ of water in a top layer five metres deep. The NS Collector filters 2,500 m³ of seawater per hour, so in theory, it could go through the entire volume inside the lice skirt in four hours, removing both lice and other debris” explained Tronsgård.
Good feedback
The lice collector mainly consists of a pump that filters large amounts of seawater through a specially adapted filter. In place inside or outside the cage, the submerged vacuum cleaner gathers salmon lice in all stages – from lice larvae to the sexually mature lice.
“We go between many sites. When we treat the fish we use NS Collector at the same time. While we wash the note, it collects almost all lice in the cage,” said Søviknes.
Customers also giving good feedback, according to Søviknes.
Effective and versatile aid
When fish are crowded, up to 40-60 per cent of the lice fall off the fish, and often find their way to new hosts. Søviknes added that the NS Collector as a good weapon in the eternal fight against salmon lice.
“We just have to use the tools we have. We can see the effect, with the number of lice that end up in the dust bag during each treatment,” he said.
Søviknes said he was pleased to be among the first to use the new sea lice collecter system. Although he uses it from a boat during delousing, NS Collector can also stand firm in a cage and collect lice 24 hours a day.
