Mowi picks Poseidon Ocean Systems for new bubble curtain, oxygen systems at Vancouver salmon farm

Mowi Canada West has chosen Vancouver, Canada-based Poseidon Ocean Systems’ oxygen technology for the company’s Monday Rock salmon farm off Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Poseidon Ocean Systems has installed perimeter bubble curtains, 15-meter-deep barrier shields, and oxygen systems with real-time environmental monitoring technology at the aquaculture site. The combination of both physical and bubble barriers, along with the oxygen system, will help the farm avoid interactions with wild salmon and reduce the threats such as plankton booms, hypoxia, and sea lice.

“Three quarters of the farm’s enclosure is physically separated from the surrounding environment to a depth of 15 metres, so this technology developed by Poseidon is critical to allow us to create healthy living conditions within the space where we raise our salmon,” Mowi Technical Manager Rodrigo Cristi said in a release. “The salmon have been growing in the system for six months now and fish condition, which includes size and health, are looking very promising so far.”

The new Poseidon technology, according to Mowi, is efficient enough to avoid some of the issues with other similar systems which end up coming with matching environmental costs due to higher energy use. The monitoring technology coupled with the Poseidon-developed “Flowpressor” and “Oxypressor” systems allow the company to produce oxygen as required, saving energy and also ensuring no oxygen is wasted.

“Our company has been focused on developing our integrated technology platform which gives farmers more control over the farm environment; allowing for better control the conditions within the net pens, so that the farmers can more actively and positively affect the welfare of the fish they grow,” Poseidon Co-Founder and CTO Matt Clarke said in a release. “Since our company was founded in 2015, Poseidon has been focused on bringing a science-based, aquaculture-specific approach to this challenge and the system now installed at Mowi’s farm site was developed by our engineers for this application.”

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Photo courtesy of Mowi