Sixty South’s new state-of-the-art hatchery to be completed this summer

Antarctic salmon supplier Sixty South is investing in the construction of a new hatchery, to be located 45 kilometers north of Porvenir, Tierra del Fuego, Chile, the company announced on 14 March. 

The state-of-the-art facility will allow Sixty South to produce 12 million smolts of 120 grams per year, amounting to three million every quarter, the firm said in a press release. The hatchery will be entirely indoors, promoting greater control over the production process for the company, and will be outfitted with sophisticated, bio-secure monitoring and water quality control systems.

The four-stage hatchery will be the first one that Sixty South’s parent company, Nova Austral, will own, and is in its final stages of development, with a planned completion of August 2019. 

The location of the new facility was strategically chosen by Sixty South, with the firm situating the hatchery far from any other farms (which are located further north) as a means to “ensure clean water from the Antarctic without any parasites or disease, reducing biological risk and delivering high-quality smolts,” the company said. However, the placement of the facility does allow for short transportation time from hatchery to farm, when the time comes. 

Sixty South’s new hatchery also supports water recyclability and recirculation in an effort to limit the amount of water used throughout the production process and to demonstrate environmental integrity. Currently, the company is the only one situated in Tierra del Fuego to use the innovative technology equipped throughout its new facility, effectively “bringing new advantages and investment to the area,” according to Sixty South. 

“This important investment confirms the commitment of the company towards sustainability as this new facility is eco-friendly, with state-of-the-art technology to control the water quality and the emissions to the environment. We expect to secure our smolts supply while improving the biosecurity. Soon 100 [percent] of the farming cycle of Sixty South Salmon will be in Tierra del Fuego, in the Magallanes region,” Nicos Nicolaides, who serves as the CEO Sixty South, said regarding the company’s new site. 

Sixty South remains committed to “growing fish without any antibiotics and in the purest, most natural and clean conditions possible,” it said – a mission supported by its new hatchery. All of the company’s existing salmon farming sites received approval from the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) back in January of this year, and its Atlantic salmon was considered a “Good Alternative” by the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program as of October 2017.

The company will be exhibiting at the upcoming Seafood Expo North America event, taking place in Boston, Massachusetts, from 17 to 19 March, at Booth #2765.