Reference image of an Innovasea wireless sensor (with orange float) on a cage walkway. The US company is installing a real-time monitoring system at Grieg's Red Island farm in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, before the site is stocked. Photo: Innovasea.

Real-time monitors for new Grieg Newfoundland site

Boston-based aquaculture technology supplier Innovasea today announced that it has begun installing a complete real-time environmental monitoring system at Grieg Seafood’s new Red Island farm site in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland, Canada.

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The system will provide baseline data on dissolved oxygen, salinity, chlorophyll, blue-green algae and turbidity levels at the site as well as information on currents and weather before the 10 pens are stocked with Atlantic salmon later this year.

“Real-time data is a necessity for today’s aquaculture operators because it helps them protect fish stocks, optimise production and operate in a safe, sustainable manner,” said Tim Stone, Innovasea’s vice president of product development. “We’re excited to provide Grieg with the best environmental monitoring tools in the industry so it can successfully open up this new area to salmon farming over the next decade.”

The aquaMeasure DO is one of Innovasea's range of sensors. It measures dissolved oxygen (DO), temperature and tilt in real time. Image: Innovasea.

Data-driven decisions

The deployment is part of a $27 million initiative with Canada’s Ocean Supercluster that aims to improve data-driven decision making in aquaculture. Grieg is leading the Supercluster’s Integrated Operations and Real-Time Analytics Project in partnership with Innovasea and SubC Imaging.

The environmental monitoring system at the remote site includes wireless aquaMeasure sensors and an aquaHub that uploads data to the cloud via cellular network.

Innovasea said that setting up the real-time system in advance will enable Grieg to deliver on its promise to carefully introduce sustainable salmon farming to Placentia Bay.

Always available

“Our technology delivers real-time data to farm operators 24/7 no matter where they are so they can make objective, analytical decisions well in advance or at a moment’s notice,” said Stone.

“A lot of aquaculture sites are in rugged, far-off locations, but Innovasea’s solutions ensure the data is always available when you need it.”

This year Grieg will transfer 3 million salmon smolts from its hatchery in Marystown, Newfoundland to the pens in Placentia Bay. The fish will be harvested starting in 2023, with the company planning to harvest 15,000 tonnes of salmon in the region by 2025.

Eventually Grieg intends to raise salmon across 11 sites in Placentia Bay, harvesting up to 45,000 tonnes of salmon per year.

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