Conventional salmon farms have come under fire because of high mortality rates of salmon in aqua culture. In Norway, which supplies over 50% of global production, a farm has taken a more responsible approach.
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00:00The fjords of Norway, a popular tourist destination and now home to a new kind of salmon farm
00:08committed to doing things differently.
00:10The country supplies over half of global production.
00:14Tomas Myrholt is CEO of Akva Future, which operates the farm.
00:19Whenever he can, he leaves his office to head out along the fjord to be with his team.
00:25Definitely, we're trying to find a new way of doing salmon farming.
00:30Our goal is to reach the utopia of having the world's most sustainable salmon farming.
00:38We believe in working proactively to mitigate the problems before they become problems,
00:44like sea lice for instance.
00:45So we don't have any sea lice here, and also with pathogens and protecting the fish.
00:53Sea lice are a major problem for conventional farms, especially sea lice, tiny crustaceans
00:58that can even cause mass die-offs among their hosts.
01:01And they can also be transmitted to wild Atlantic salmon, whose stocks have plummeted by more
01:06than 50% since the 1980s.
01:09Environmentalists say it's a major problem.
01:13Sea lice is a very bad thing for the salmon in the pens, but also it's a problem for the
01:21wild salmon.
01:23And the wild salmon in this area is the Atlantic salmon, and now it's threatened.
01:28And the decrease in numbers are very dramatic.
01:35Another issue is that the farmed fish often escape through gaps in the nets.
01:39If they then mate with the wild Atlantic salmon, their offspring struggle to survive, leading
01:44to a further decline in the ocean-going population.
01:49And excrement from the aquaculture facility often pollutes the surrounding waters.
01:55That in turn promotes the spread of skin diseases in the fish.
01:59So what makes this farm different?
02:01The key lies in its construction.
02:05Instead of being surrounded by nets, the fish pens are enveloped in plastic.
02:10We have a protective bowl, a closed bag that the fish is in, and we fill that bag with
02:16water from the depth, so it's fresh water from the depth without sea lice.
02:22The aquaculture pens are made of an impermeable plastic outer skin, or bag, and a net to prevent
02:29the farmed fish from escaping and endangering the wild Atlantic salmon.
02:36That double barrier also keeps lice and other parasites out of the pen.
02:46The pens get a fresh supply of water piped in from the cold depths of the ocean where
02:50there are no sea lice.
02:56Excrement from the fish is collected by a filter under each pen and then pumped to the
03:01surface.
03:03It's dried and then used by biogas plants to generate green electricity, or by farmers
03:10as fertilizer.
03:12We're the only salmon farmer that I know that don't have sea lice.
03:16And when the fish gets to just thrive inside of a good environment, you have very good
03:22growth, you have very low mortality, and very good quality of the fish that you harvest.
03:31In 2023, the average farmed salmon mortality rate across Norway was 17%, with infectious
03:38diseases a major factor.
03:40Here the rate is just 4% thanks to a very low level of disease transmission.
03:47The boss shows us the filter systems that are installed under the pens.
03:51In the assembly hall, pump units are being built, which will then be welded together.
03:59The company has a patent on the high-tech filters.
04:02This is the outlet, so this actually regulates how everything is floating in the ocean.
04:07And it's also where we collect the sludge, and if we have any dead fish, we can collect
04:13it here, take it ashore, and use it for another value streams.
04:20Aqua Future says it's making a profit, and that its salmon is no more expensive than
04:25what's sold by conventional producers.
04:30Repurposing the filtered sludge also helps in keeping costs down.
04:37For now at least, the salmon industry is skeptical of the innovative young CEO.
04:47Will his approach bring a lasting, sustainable change to salmon farming?
04:52Thomas Mierholt is optimistic, and is already hatching plans for an expansion.