Progress fuelled by “back-to-basics” approach
Speaking to Fish Farming Expert the morning after the 2014 results were published, Mr Pettersen reflected: “We’re focusing on production and on improving the growing conditions in our seawater phase and we have succeeded, with a higher kg yield per site, despite having fewer fish in the ocean. We’ve had fewer mortalities and higher growth rates.”
“We’ve changed the feeding regime, switching from low to high energy diets. And, by installing cameras on all our cages we’ve been able to improve our focus on precision feeding,” he explains.
Looking to the future, Petterson feels quietly optimistic, thanks in part to the fact that the company’s recently completed state-of-the-art hatcherty at Girlsta is now online – indeed the first batch of smolts from the new facility are due to be released into sea cages on Monday (May 4th).
“We’ll be releasing 360,000 150g smolts into our sea sites. They were only hatched at the end of June last year, so we’re pleased with how well they’ve grown – it’s very encouraging. However, we’re planning on growing them even larger before their put into the sea sites in the future,” Sigurd Pettersen explains.
He also sees great potential in the company’s recent deployment of lumpfish to control sea lice, although, he admits, they are currently dealing with an unusual problem.
“The problem is that the sites where the lumpfish trials are taking place don’t have any lice! We know that lumpfish are effective cleaner fish and have found up to 30 lice in the stomachs of dead lumpfish in the cages, but we still have to learn how to tend them.”
Despite some setbacks, the company is planning on going ahead with more projects with these cleaner fish.
“We’re planning on importing more from Norway and we’re involved in a plan to produce our own lumpfish in Shetland,” he reveals.
