Scottish Sea Farms wanted more control and higher survival rates in its salmon hatchery – from egg to adult. And it wanted a more sustainable system. The company thus built a recirculation Aqua Culture system (RAS) at its Barcaldine (UK) hatchery, with Water Reuse of 96%.
More than 250 Grundfos pumps move the water and fish between tanks and through the RAS system – including applications like mechanical filtration, temperature control, disinfection and more. A sudden pump failure would be catastrophic for the plant. The plant has not had any major breakdowns.
“In the natural environment, a salmon reproduces in a freshwater river,” says Ewen Leslie, Freshwater Engineering Manager at Scottish Sea Farms Barcaldine hatchery. “When the fish goes to smolt and heads back down to the river mouth to go out to sea, from that egg to that smolt in the natural environment, you have a 95% mortality rate, 5% survival rate. In a RAS production area where you control the environment, we’ve turned that around, achieving a 90% survival rate.”
“Grundfos pumps help us maintain fish survival rates, then help us achieve greater water reuse,” he adds. “And we move it around quicker, easier. And we will know that when we switch on the pump, it’s going to run for us 24/7 for the duration that the manufacturer has specified.”
He says that since it started in 2019, the hatchery has had no major breakdowns. Further: “We’ve had no fish losses in the facility. And we’ve had compliments back from our marine farms that we are now producing the biggest, most robust smolts they’ve had. The smolts are also fed straightaway on day one, which has never happened before from other smolt suppliers. So that, to me is our biggest achievement.”
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