Norwegian companies Nordlaks and NSK Ship Design have cooperated on a project that could be the beginning of a sustainable revolution in the fish farming industry. If the project is completed as it has been designed, it will result in the creation of the longest ship in the world.
In particular, on the drawing board is a ship known as Havfarm (‘Ocean Farm’), 430 metres in length and 54 metres wide, it will lay at anchor, fixed to the seafloor using the offshore industry’s technological solutions. The vessel will be the longest ship in the world. For reference, the world’s largest cruise ship is 360 metres long. The longest hangar ship in the world, the American USS Enterprise, is 342 metres long.
The aquaculture industry is basically being taken from the fjords to the ocean. Norway is a world leader in this field, and the Norwegian industry is comfortable creating solutions that can withstand very tough conditions at sea.
One Havfarm will be able to contain 10,000 tons of salmon –over 2 million fish. For comparison, the Nordlaks salmon slaughterhouse at Børøya produces 70,000 tons a year. The facilities will be able to withstand a significant wave height of ten metres, and can be raised by four metres during inclement weather.
The ocean farm itself will extend ten metres below sea level. The farm will be constructed as a steel frame for six “cages” measuring 50 by 50 metres on the surface, with aquaculture nets going to a depth of 60 metres.
Because steel louse skirts at a depth of ten metres will make sea lice history. When the Havfarm lays at anchor, the spreading area for waste products will be 27 times larger than it would be for ordinary pens, a massive 472,000 square metres. To the extent lice may appear on the salmon, the farm can facilitate the manual removal of sea lice. This also provides a totally chemical-free production.
The use of chemicals to remove lice has been a much-debated environmental issue, and has been a major expense for the industry as well. This is expected to change the direction of the aquaculture industry, which has been struggling due to such issues.
