Sustainable marine aquaculture with closed pens

The aquaculture industry can provide seafood to a growing world population while avoiding the risk of overfishing. However, large-scale growth of the aquaculture industry is hampered by problems such as disease, sea lice, fish escapes and build-up of faeces and waste feed. These problems can have an adverse effect on fish welfare, production volume and marine ecosystems.

One way of mitigating these problems is to use closed facilities.

Cost-effective closed fish farms

FiiZK delivers fully enclosed fish pens which offer complete protection from parasites and pathogens while eliminating the risk of fish escapes and emissions to the local marine environment.

The pens, or cages, are constructed out of durable PVC to withstand high winds and waves. They are equipped with a pumping system that collects water from depths of 15 m or more, ensuring a clean and healthy environment for the fish. They also feature a filtration system that purifies ingoing and outgoing water.

FiiZK’s cages can be delivered in different sizes according to customer needs, with the largest offering a production volume of up to 15 000 m³.

Concrete benefits

FiiZK’s fully enclosed pens have economic, environmental and ethical benefits. In addition to eliminating fish escapes and emissions, they also provide an optimal environment for the fish yielding larger, faster-growing, higher-quality fish.

Moreover, traditional, open fish farms often experience biomass loss as high as 20 per cent. Average biomass loss in closed fish farms, on the other hand, seldom amounts to more than 1.5 per cent.

Market potential

By 2050, it is expected that  40 per cent  of protein consumed worldwide will come from the sea. The global market for closed fish farms is expected to grow substantially in coming years, as the aquaculture industry faces more stringent environmental regulations and closed systems become more cost-efficient.

Established in 2009, FiiZK is a leading provider of sea lice protection equipment to the Norwegian aquaculture industry. The company also supplies closed holding pens, as well as closed cages for land-based aquaculture.