Cooke joins warm water treatment revolution

Cooke Aquaculture has received $3.2 million in federal funding to help develop an environmentally friendly and economical device and process to remove sea lice from farmed salmon. And it's 100% green.

Through the Fisheries and Oceans Canada's Aquaculture Collaborative Research and Development Program and ACOA's Atlantic Innovation Fund, the company plans to further develop an innovative tool that uses warm water to remove sea lice from farmed salmon.

Cooke Aquaculture told Fish Farming Expert that, over the past two years, sea trials have been conducted in a modified barge and system that was built locally. The trials demonstrated that this technology can achieve 95% removal of the parasite. The dislodged parasites are then filtered collected and disposed of on land.

This green alternative to control of the salmon louse will be a significant benefit to the industry, both by reducing the costs associated with lice control, but also by offering another tool for integrated pest management. Perhaps most importantly, this new tool is totally chemically-free.

"Successful implementation of the project will have a direct impact on reducing sea lice-related losses for Cooke Aquaculture and provide a green alternative to managing sea lice outbreaks, strengthening the Atlantic salmon brand and competitiveness in the marketplace," said the government's media release.

"This is a technology and process that was designed in-house by our company engineer and science, fish health and farming staff," Nell Halse, VP of Communications at Cooke, told Fish Farming Expert. "Lab trials were conducted at the St Andrews Biological Station in collaboration with Dr Shawn Robinson and his DFO colleagues."

The company will be employing several local companies to carry out the production of the systems.

"The barge is being built in a local shipyard across the Bay of Fundy.  Components of the lice removal process are being built by a local manufacturing company - and a whole team of engineers, scientists and veterinarians in Atlantic Canada are engaged in the building of this innovative project," said Glenn Cooke, CEO of Cooke Aquaculture.

'Major step forward'

Cooke added that this new tool a 'major step forward' for Canadian aquaculture.

“Managing fish health has always been of paramount importance to our family’s fish farming business. That means working with our in-house scientists, veterinarians and engineers to explore innovative new ways of doing things. It also means partnering with science organizations and with our government to develop effective solutions for farming challenges like managing sea lice. Today’s announcement is a major step forward, not just for our company, but for Canada’s aquaculture industry,” he said.

"We are already seeing global interest in this novel process and we expect the economic and business benefits will be even more far-reaching as the project becomes operational," he said.

Cooke estimates sea lice infestation in New Brunswick and Newfoundland and Labrador alone have cost industry more than $75 million over the last five years.