MICANTI
CONTAINMENT SPECIAL
A new approach to antifouling
ENVIRONMENTALLY-FRIENDLY, LONG-LASTING ANTIFOULING SYSTEM ELIMINATES NEED FOR RISKY NET CHANGES AND WEAR ON NETS THROUGH WASHING
or cage farming, one of the biggest nuisances is the fact that the cages are polluted by marine fouling – every farmer will have experienced cages that get over- grown. The consequence – low oxygen concen- tration resulting in low growth rates or even death of the fish – can lead to severe economic losses. To date, fish farmers have combated fouling by using toxic copper-based antifouling paints, but this kills the organisms around the cages and results in organic pollution of the seabed. Moreover, the toxic compounds in the paint can get in the water or – worse – accumulate inside the fish. And a big drawback of the current antifouling systems is that the lifetime is limited: depending on location and time of year the lifetime can be between 3-6 months. Cleaning nets with disk cleaners causes dam- age of the gills and decreases the strength of
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the net, thus increasing the chance of escapes. In the past few years, the Dutch company Micanti has developed a system that addresses these problems. Micanti’s technological team has succeeded in developing a system which prevents fouling without killing it and, due to the physical nature of the product, can last for the lifetime of the net. ‘The principle of the technology is simple,’ ex- plains Rik Breur, Director of Micanti, ‘by apply- ing short spiky fibres on the surface of the net, the surface becomes unattractive for marine organisms to settle. You can compare it to the spikes of a sea urchin or the thorns of a rose.’ In analogy to the defence mechanisms, the Micanti team named their product Thorn-D®
.
Though simple in its principle, in practice there is advanced adhesive and fibre technol- ogy needed to be effective. The fibre charac- teristics and density are crucial to the success,
www.fishfarmer-magazine.com
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