Inside story
into the ocean, which is about a kilometre away. Independent environmental monitoring of this discharge is carried out on a fortnightly basis. Kuterra salmon is enjoying considerable
tain around 44,000 fish (although the first two cohorts were less than that, 23,000 and 33,000 respectively), and the module will house four cohorts at any given time – three in ongrowing and one in quarantine. Fish are harvested every ten days, and harvests are scheduled to last 16 weeks, to ensure a continuous supply to market. The harvested salmon are shipped to Albion Fisheries in Vancouver, who process and distribute the fish to Kuterra’s customers on a weekly basis.
In terms of the recirculation system itself, it uses a very slightly brackish well water, which is UV treated in the facility before being recircu- lated through the system every 30-60 minutes. During the course of recycling, drum filters remove solid waste, air is blown through it to strip CO2
and it is passed through a biofilter –
essentially a colony of bacteria on sand slurry – which metabolises nitrates and metabolites. The water is then re-oxygenated prior to being put back into the tank. Discharged water is chlorin- ated then dechlorinated before being filtered
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market success. Currently, 95 per cent of the mild-tasting salmon is being sold in Safeways stores in two provinces at a premium, with stocks regularly selling out between each weekly shipment. The remaining five per cent goes to high-end restaurants in Vancouver and Ontario. Once production is ramped up – there are plans for five further modules, with one already under construction – they will be able to supply further afield. Two value-added products are also in development, including a smoked product, which is apparently going
Clockwise from far left: Kuterra salmon; the first harvest; the first smolts arriving; on the plate
down very well. Whether or not Kuterra is commercially viable remains to be seen; the answer to this question is probably a year or so down the line. Part of the stipulation for funding was that information and data was shared with any other potential producers and, in this respect, Kuterra is something of a ‘proof of concept’ project. Because if it does prove to be commer- cially viable, we could see a lot more land-based closed containment salmon farms in the not too distant future. FF
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The costs were particularly high because everything had to be overbuilt
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