Steen-Hansen and Ecolab collaborate to enhance fish welfare and optimise aquaculture

May 7, 2024 - Steen-Hansen, a global market leader on antifouling and coating for aquaculture purposes, and Ecolab, a global sustainability leader offering water solutions and services, announced the collaboration to further develop Steen-Hansen's NetCare program to jointly address fish welfare through sustainable, innovative solutions, securing biosecurity in a broad aquacultural sector.

Optimised aquaculture plays a vital role in meeting the world's food demand and is recognised as the fastest-growing food production system globally. As an alternative to sea overfishing, it offers a solution to combat the depletion of fish stocks, a key factor driving the current decline in ocean biodiversity. Aquaculture farming in the EU yielded 1.1 million tonnes of aquatic organisms in 2021, worth €4.2 billion.

Norway's production exceeds the total EU production in volume, and it is the ninth largest producer globally.

In a collaborative effort, Steen-Hansen and Ecolab are pioneering advancements in aquaculture by improving fish health, reducing cross-contamination and enhancing the output of fish farms. The collaboration is honing the specification of net hygiene through their innovative NetCare program - a comprehensive framework that encompasses specialised training, rigorous procedures, and measurable results for the disinfection of aquaculture nets.

Ecolab's innovative and aquaculturally approved products undergo thorough testing to help ensure they meet industry standards for material compatibility, practical functionality, and effectiveness. This helps promote the highest level of biosecurity and food safety, safeguarding against the rapid growth of biofouling which comprises net integrity and poses significant risks to the health of farmed fish populations.

Steen-Hansen's cutting-edge NetCare certification program represents an important step to solidify an end-to-end hygienic process for the maintenance of fish farm nets. This robust regime of cleaning, disinfection and coating is more than a procedure - it's a pivotal line of defence. It is instrumental in preventing the cross-contamination of pathogens between fish farms, a crucial step in adverting potential mass fatalities within farmed fish communities.

"Strengthening biosecurity measures for fish farms has become one of the most important challenges for sustainable growth in this industry, and we see the need for holistic approach to improve welfare. Being able to supply compatible technologies, training and quality assurance has long been the goal for Steen-Hansen, and together with the extensive competency and portfolio of Ecolab we can fulfil an important solution for our customers.", said Ulrik Ulriksen, CEO, Steen-Hansen.

"Product stewardship is paramount to Ecolab in every aspect of our global operations. We strive to make a positive impact across our actions and products" said Lars-Martin Haugbers, Head of Sales, Norway & Finland, Ecolab. "By collaborating with Steen-Hansen, which represents a holistic, steadfast approach to fish welfare, we help secure the stewardship further."

Steen-Hansen and Ecolab are committed to helping advance aquaculture practices that cannot only enhance operational efficiency but also help promote the health and longevity of marine life. This collaboration aims at setting new industry benchmarks to deliver a controlled, effective and sustainable model to help safeguard against the proliferation of aquatic diseases.

For more information, visit HERE.

The Aquaculturists

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Significant improvements with data-driven salmon lice strategy

May 3, 2024 - An extensive collaborative project between Norwegian salmon producer Hofseth, data-analysis company Manolin and feed producer Cargill showed that data-driven delousing strategies led to major improvements in trout production. 

Hofseth Aqua AS operates four R&D permits for Cargill Aqua Nutrition where feed concepts for rainbow trout are being developed. The permits are located in Storfjorden east of Ålesund in production area five in Norway.

From 2022 to 2023, the project achieved:

• 16 percent fewer mechanical delousing treatments,
• 52 percent fewer bathing delousing treatments,
• 70 percent reduction in treatment-related mortality,
• 26 percent fewer starvation days,
• Increase in revenue estimated to around 50 million NOK.

Dealing with the lice challenge at these locations has been demanding, and attempts have been made over time to optimise smolt production, find new locations and apply new technical equipment. Area and site analyses have contributed to a good structure for determining locations and positioning of facilities to ensure optimal farming conditions. Nevertheless, in 2022, it was recognised that there was a potential to improve management of sea lice. 

Therefore, Hofseth and Cargill began a project to reduce the number of delousing and reduce fish mortality.

"It all started with the lice, where did they come from? How do we succeed with our delousing? How could we establish a strategy and have performance targets that were easy to communicate and apply for the entire organisation?", says Anders Marthinussen, Catgill's business developer for fish health in Norway.

The Norwegian Institute of Marine Research's model for the spread of salmon lice was amongst the starting points applied to gain a basic understanding of how various sites contribute to lice production in the fjord system throughout the year. The lice map showed that even with average values below the action thresholds, there were periods of high lice pressure in the fjord system.

"This knowledge was used to create an annual wheel for a lice strategy, based on preventative measures, control measures and treatment measures that could be performed with available tools. At the same time, the need to document both direct and indirect effects of the strategy became clear, and an analysis of operational data would be needed to be able to correct the course and possibly initiate change in the strategy," says Marthinussen.

Hofseth and Cargill therefore teamed up with Manolin, a company that develops basis for data-driven decisions. In a previous project, Manolin and Cargill reviewed a large number of delousing operations and developed a method for auditing delousing results. This experience was now applied to conduct an analysis of the Hofseth sites. 

"In this project we developed a method that showed treatment results at site level, as well as which impact choice of delousing method had on a number of productivity parameters for various fish groups. From this, we learned that in order to succeed, the focus had to shift from focusing on thresholds for taking action at the site, to establishing thresholds for lice levels in the fjord system," says Marthinussen.

An overall index for fish health, mortality and lice levels was established and revised on a weekly basis to provide a status of the entire fjord system. Each individual delousing was audited after the last day of treatment, then again after 30 days and after 90 days.

"What was perhaps immediately perceived as a good delousing could fall through if, for example, increasing mortality was observed afterwards. This enabled us to identify critical periods and weeks when it was important to implement measures and to highlight the effect of these," says Anders Marthinussen.

The annual cycle of the delousing strategy was then followed up with weekly revisions of the levels of lice pressure. Treatment results were ranked as less good, average, or good, which provided a basis for identifying the positive results and learnings from the less positive ones. Prioritisation of actions taken on various sites was determined based on what was the best strategy overall.

"This project shows that analysis of structured data can reduce the lice challenge by enabling the right actions to be taken at the right time. When we share the results from this project, it is in the hope that other fish farmers can achieve similar improvements with a similar approach, and thereby contribute to meeting the overall health and welfare challenges facing the salmon industry," says Sigurd Tonheim, Strategic Marketing and Technology Lead at Cargill Aqua Nutrition in Norway. 

"This project not only demonstrates the power of targeted strategies and data-driven approaches, but also establishes a new standard for sustainable aquaculture practices. The experience here can be a great example of what's possible and illustrates the potential when aquaculture expertise works with data intelligence," says Tony Chen, co-founder of Manolin.

"In Hofseth, we are responsible and accountable for ensuring the health and welfare of our fish. This project shows that better decisions can be made from analyzing structured data in order improve our sea lice management," says Sven Amund Skotheim, fish health manager of Hofseth Aqua.

Hofseth, Cargill and Manolin will continue cooperating on this work also in 2024 and expect further improvements in fish health, fish welfare and increased productivity.

For more information, visit HERE.

The Aquaculturists

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Start-up aims to make a splash with aquaculture sensor for developing nations

May 3, 2024 - A new, low-cost Internet of Things (IoT) sensor system could help the aquaculture sector in developing countries fight against the effects of climate change by enabling fish farmers to detect, monitor and manage water quality in real time.

Aqsen Innovations has partnered with CENSIS - Scotland's innovation centre for sensing, imaging and IoT technologies - to advance the development of its sensor system, Aquasense, which can be adapted to test for a range of variables in water, such as temperature, oxygenation, salinity and the presence of chemicals such as chlorine.

Sensor systems with these features are often highly expensive, making them too costly to use in many developing nations. However, Aqsen Innovations is aiming for the technology to be priced at just 25 percent to 30 percent of equivalent products. Working with CENSIS will help the company achieve this price point by using a unique combination of components that will work with Aqsen's software tools.

By monitoring water quality in real-time, the IoT sensors generate data that can be monitored remotely via a mobile device and inform decision-making. It is particularly aimed at areas which rely on climate-sensitive sectors such as aquaculture, as well as areas prone to flooding. 

Fish farmers could benefit from the technology by tacking the temperature, dissolved oxygen concentration, and the pH level of water, allowing them to identify the optimal time for feeding and checking fish health.

Later this year, the team will work with Makerere University College of Natural Sciences in Uganda to begin advanced trials of the technology in Lake Victoria. Initial trials have also successfully been undertaken at fish farms in Uganda, as well as in India where Aquasense was used to monitor the quality of water in floodplains and on farmland.

Rinku Dasbiswas, Co-Founder of Aqsen Innovations, said: "Aquasense provides real-time, dynamic insights on water quality that can support communities and help to improve productivity across a variety of sectors grappling with environmental challenges. It is about making technology that can make a real difference more affordable and accessible to those who need it most. The impact this could have in developing nations is huge, and it was brilliant to hear the initial feedback from fish farmers on the difference this could make to their livelihoods.

"once we reach commercialisation, we hope to develop the product further and begin incorporating satellite imaging. CENSIS is playing a key role in integrating the IoT technologies into our sensor systems. The team also introduced us to other UK-based companies operating in the field, and we hope to foster these connections by working together to adapt the product and help mitigate against the impacts of climate change in this part of the world as well."

The sensors are also going to be trialled on several projects in Scotland which involve CENSIS, exploring how to best monitor water quality in different contexts, including flooding and tree planting. Potential applications are also being explored in South Africa and Malaysia.

Rachael Wakefield, Business Development Manager at CENSIS, added: "Aqsen Innovations' mission is closely alined with our own, and we have experience of creating bespoke IoT-enabled sensors for use in environmental sensing applications at scale. Accessible, affordable environmental sensing is not just a challenge for developing nations, it is useful here in the UK too - especially for small farms and not-for-profit organisations that have a need for data-evidenced land management change. The potential impact of Aquasense is huge and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Aqsen Innovations, supporting the team to address global climate challenges."

For more information, visit HERE. 

The Aquaculturists

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