Two years without lice treatments for Icelandic salmon farmer
Háafell has managed to grow fish without medicinal or wellboat interventions at its farm in Seydisfjordur. Chief executive Gauti Geirsson explains how.
Published
It was the Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið that first reported the matter, writing that Háafell has once again completed an entire production year without lice treatment at its farm in Seydisfjordur.
Háafell is a salmon farming company in the Westfjords of Iceland, and is a subsidiary of Hradfrystihusid-Gunnvör hf.
Lasers and lice skirts
Chief exceutive Gauti Geirsson of Háafell told Fish Farming Expert’s Norwegian sister site, Kyst.no, about the measures that he believes have made it possible for the company to be treatment-free for two years in a row.
“The combination of Stingray lasers and lice skirts has been the most crucial measure in our prevention strategy. Since we started using this combination, we have seen a clear difference,” he said.
The company also uses some lumpfish as cleaner fish to eat off the salmon, but the CEO said that it is the technology that has had the greatest effect.
“The key has been to start the year with as low a lice pressure as possible. The main thing is to start with low pressure in the spring and keep it low into the lice season,” he explained.
Best results without treatment
The Icelandic winter conditions, with sea temperatures below four degrees for several months, also provide good working conditions for the technology.
“During the cold winter period, the Stingray systems have time to reduce the sea lice that arrive in the autumn, so that levels are close to zero when spring starts again,” said Geirsson.
Háafell also sees clear production benefits from avoiding treatments.
“We see the best results on fish that have had low lice levels and that have not been treated,” Geirsson said.
He believes the combination of technological measures and good planning has made the fish more stable throughout the entire production cycle.
Westfjords can reduce treatments
Although Háafell has succeeded in staying treatment-free, Geirsson does not believe this is achievable for everyone.
“I do not think it is realistic that the entire Westfjord region will be completely treatment-free.”
Nevertheless, he believes that the number of treatments can be significantly reduced if more actors are heavily involved in preventive work.
“With more preventive measures, treatment numbers can drop drastically, and regional lice pressure can be reduced.”
The Háafell manager said the company is continuously evaluating new technological solutions that can further strengthen the prevention strategy.
Larger and more robust smolt
Another part of the strategy is about the quality and size of the smolts stocked in the pens. Háafell currently produces smolt weighing around 200 grams, but is now in the process of increasing it to 350–400 grams.
“We smoltify by gradually mixing in seawater, and in the end we only have seawater before release. This results in robust smolts that are ready to eat when they get to the sea,” says Geirsson, describing the results as “generally very good”.
