Farming in the Extremes

Beautiful setting for fish farming

PESCA Chile, a subsidiary of the PESCA NOVA Group in Spain, is located on the 47th parallel, in the XIth region of Chile, one of the most southern Atlantic salmon farms in the world. Salmon Farming Division Manager Michael Bullock explains: Pesca Chile has a production of 5,500 tonnes per year comprising of Coho, Rainbow trout and Atlantic salmon.

The headquarters is located at Puerto Chacabuco, by the Fiordo Aisen. Two sites are easily reached from the head office whereas the other four are located some 80 nautical miles south of the office at Estero Quitralco. This means an 8-hour boat voyage as there are no roads or any other infrastructure.

Communication is one major challenge in managing these extremely remote sites. Even if boats are travelling back and forth every day in the harvesting season and also in the season for smolt entries, for most of the year there is only one boat arriving every 5th day. Almost all communication is by radio. The crew works on a schedule 15 days on and 5 days off, or 21 days on and 7 days off duty. Certainly not a job for anyone looking for a normal family life. Water conditions on these remote sites are particularly good. Water is extremely clean and with the lowest temperature in August being 6-7°C, best possible farming conditions are promoted. Cages used are 20 x 20 m and some circular cages are also used.

Michael Bullock expects the highest possible performance from the feed he buys which is understandable, especially as the feed has to be transported by a 20 hour boat trip from Puerto Montt to Estero Quitralco. He is a satisfied user of VEXTRA Omega for Atlantic salmon and of VEXTRA Gamma for Coho production. Of course, all feed comes from EWOS, either in 1 tonne bags for the automatic feeding systems or in 25 kg bags for other sites. Pesca Chile aims to be in the forefront of utilising high technology. Michael Bullock is presently undertaking trials with various automatic feeding systems.

Aquasmart and underwater cameras are used to monitor feed consumption and to ensure the lowest possible FCR. If communication is one major challenge, maintainance of high tech equipment is certainly another, again taking distance into consideration.

No doubt there will be more farms in southern of Chile, since the far south enjoys an optimal climate compared to that in which many farms in the northern hemisphere operate.

Cool fish farmers, Fred Falck, Roger Skjeldnes and Arvid Pedersen

Down to 0° Celcius at 71° North
If you take a look at a fairly large globe, you will see that Nordkapp Sjøfarm at Honningsvåg lies just a few fingers' breadth from the North Pole. It is hard to believe that the Gulf Stream still retains a little warmth when it reaches the North Cape. Maybe there was an 11th commandment which Moses forgot to write down, "Thou shalt pursue fish-farming in Finnmark!".

It's certainly cold up here, says manager Fred Falch. Last year we had an average temperature of 5.5° C, with 13.1 as the highest. But the salmon grows! Last year's smolt which entered sea water at the end of June '97 have now reached 1.4 kg, and by October this year they will be harvested at 4.5 kg. Our harvesting period lasts from September to July at weights between 4 and 7 kg. Grilsing presents no problems with the temperatures and light conditions we have, so that the fish can be kept in the sea for as long as it takes to produce large salmon.

Nordkapp Sjøfarm will produce almost 1500 tons this year, and if we are allocated any of the new concessions in Finnmark, we anticipate considerable expansion in the future. The salmon is mostly distributed through Norwell and ends up on plates throughout Europe.

Our location, which lies both far north and far to the east, means that both Japan and Russia are highly potential markets for our products. Direct flights are already going from North Norway to Japan with fresh salmon; we are in fact the nearest source of supply for the Japanese, situated as we are "on top of the world". Russia is a new and rapidly developing market which can be supplied by road transport. The distance to Moscow is no greater than that to Denmark, but it will still take some time before the run from up here is operating smoothly.

VEXTRA Delta is "today's special" - every day
In order to secure good fish growth under our extreme conditions, feed quality is of decisive importance. Not least, the feed must be palatable, and in this respect our experience with VEXTRA Delta is very good, says Fred Falck.

Last year we achieved a FCR close to 1 by means of feeding cannons, under-water cameras and FarmControl. We are very pleased both with the follow-up EWOS give and the interest they have shown in the special conditions under which we are operating up here.