In at the Deep end
and aquaponics systems. ‘Because the industry is so small, we have to
cover every species – abalone, trout, catfish, tilapia; we have to be versatile,’ said Brynn. They now have clients in Lesotho – both
Highlands Trout (featured in last month’s Fish Farmer) and Royale Highlands Trout, which farm on the Katse Dam. They do a lot of work for the government,
building hatchery or research facilities, acting as consultants, putting in live holding systems, and supplying monitoring equipment. Develop- ing the technology that will then, hopefully, be deployed in the community is an exciting part of the company’s remit. They have worked on community operations
in the Eastern Cape, and also in Namibia and Limpopo, but, as Brynn explained, there is a downside to state backed projects. ‘Our involvement is just building the system. It
tends not to include the after site, the hand- holding that needs to happen for probably the first two years of the project. If they had that, I think their success rate would probably be a lot higher.’
He said they are constantly urging govern-
ment departments to make sure they’ve got a programme for management of their opera- tions. Brynn describes Deep Blue Aqua as ‘one of
the longer lasting’ aquaculture firms in South Africa. ‘It’s an industry that either has the DIY ele-
ment – guys who tend to do a lot of the work themselves – or the fly by nights, guys who’ll come in and the promises are high but the delivery is low.’ He is critical of the latter but sees this as a
symptom of a developing industry. ‘If you’re putting up systems that don’t work
and an aquaculture firm goes out of business, you are undermining the confidence in the industry. And particularly when it’s a young industry, like ours is, you don’t need that. ‘At the same time, it’s classic of where we are,
because you’ll always find guys who are tight on money so they go for the cheapest technology provided, which is not necessarily the best. The system then fails and so it goes on. ‘In the longer standing operations, the guys
realise they need to put in proper systems; the mindset changes slowly, once they start making money.’ On balance, Brynn is optimistic. With Opera-
tion Phakisa, he thinks there is scope for ‘quite rapid growth in the next five years’ in South African aquaculture. ‘Aquaculture tends to be a bouncy ride,
certainly in the early days of any species. If you look at the species being developed here at the moment – kob, tilapia, catfish – in the next five years, with a bit of luck, some of these will have become far more established and then that means when plant goes up it’s based on proven
www.fishfarmer-magazine.com
Deep Blue Aqua STATISTICS
Deep Blue Aqua has a strong focus on recirculation systems for aquaculture and live holding. Generally, the company’s recirculation systems utilise drum filters, bio-filtration and foam fractionation and Deep Blue Aqua is able to supply plastic moulded or GRP (fiberglass) products to support this function. Additionally, it supplies an extruded biofilter media for use in the moving- bed bio-filtration systems. In many circumstances, flow-through systems are more appropriate and Deep Blue Aqua is able to support
customers who require these systems.
It can supply turnkey systems or separate components for on-land shellfish and fish culture facilities, hatchery or grow-on, as well as research and development systems, and can provide for both marine and freshwater facilities. Its installation services include new equipment or upgrading of existing systems, and it also provides design and consulting advice.
Complete Process Control System for Aquaculture Small Systems - Large Systems - Sea Cages - Fish Transport
OxyGuard International A/S Farum Gydevej 64 3520 Farum, Denmark
www.oxyguard.dk oxyguard@oxyguard.dk
phone +45 4582 2094 fax +45 4582 1994
23
Clockwise from top: Lobster; plastic holding tank; recirculation system; aquaponics
technology. ‘That’s what’s happened in the abalone industry. The new farms that
are going up are based on technology that’s already working. ‘We’d like to see our expansion further up into Africa and beyond.
We’ve got clients in Botswana, Malawi, Namibia, and we’ve even sent equipment as far as Mali. We need to see more growth in southern Africa and our company needs to expand into those areas. But that will come.’ FF
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