Industry moving to pumps
Bedford-based Inventive Marine Products (IMP) in Canada is doing good business selling pumps, not just for unloading vessels and harvesting salmon but for shrimp, squid and sprat. It has just delivered a Twin Micro fish pump to a shrimp farm on the East Coast of Africa.
The company says the use of pumps is becoming more common as producers realise the increased cost savings they can make as well as preserving quality and reducing work time.
IMP says a Canavac fish pump can move most species in most applications better than any manual method and that pumps are being developed to handle larger species like tuna. The greater safety aspect is another reason why harvesters and producers are moving to pumps.
Cathy Mattison of the Nova Southeastern University, talking about a Canavac pump used for shrimp, says: "We harvested the pond yesterday using the Canavac. Its performance was exceptional. Not even an antennae was broken during the process. Our buyer was sceptical of the harvester at first, but by the end he was highly impressed."
Canavac Pumps can operate at from five to 25 tonnes an hour and up to 200t per hour, powered by diesel, gas or electric units. The Micro unit capacity starts at 50 grammes fish and the larger Aqua pumps can handle fish up to 20 kilos in size.
The units can be integrated with trailers, dewatering boxes, weight boxes in a number of configurations to suit almost any application IMP says.
The fish never come into contact with an impeller and are moved throughout the pumping process cosseted in water which reduces stress. The pump units are usually self-contained, requiring only a source of water and access to the product to be moved. Jamie Judge, IMP sales and marketing director says sales have gone up also for non-traditional applications.
"More and more often we are hearing from shrimp producers, squid harvesters, seiners, sardines processors etc.... about our pumps and how they can save time, money and most importantly, enhance the quality of their product. It is really interesting to see our market evolve and grow into these areas and we are excited about the future," he said.
