He arranged a trip with some Mowi colleagues from Scotland to the Faroe Islands, visiting key suppliers to the Faroese aquaculture sector and to see how fish farms operate under the tough conditions around the islands, with year-round strong currents and wild weather that is a feature of the Faroese winter months.<\/p>\n
The three main companies serving the Faroese aquaculture industry are cage and workboat supplier KJ Hydraulic, JT Electric which has a range of feeding systems, high quality cables, lights, cameras and feed barges \u2013 and V\u00f3nin, which has a long history in developing and producing mooring system equipment, aquaculture nets and a range of associated hardware. All three companies have a growing presence in the UK market and work closely together to service the UK Aquaculture Industry.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I learned from the visit is that Faroese suppliers and farmers like to keep things simple in operating and servicing sites. All the suppliers and farmers work closely together to reach the best solutions on these challenging sites,\u201d Kris Laird said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Faroe Islands have a number of high-energy fish farm sites. At Mowi we are always looking at new ways and ideas of improving our equipment and farm practices, especially as we move towards more exposed areas. So we wanted to see how they operate under extreme conditions and what equipment they use.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mowi subsequently chose V\u00f3nin to be a preferred supplier of moorings and nets, with JT Electric and KJ Hydraulic also supplying equipment to a number of sites in Scotland.<\/p>\n
Kris Laird commented that seeing Faroese farms in operation and also the depth of experience and expertise gave him the confidence to order V\u00f3nin equipment for Mowi\u2019s sites.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe in-depth modelling and the highly detailed discussions we had right at the start of the process were key for me in choosing V\u00f3nin mooring systems,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
V\u00f3nin\u2019s technical team design all mooring systems using Aqua Sim which is accredited by the Norwegian government to perform mooring analysis for the aquaculture industry, in accordance to the NYTEK-regulations. The engineering software takes into account all location conditions and factors that could affect the sites ensuring that all mooring systems meet the required standards.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe overriding factors when designing a mooring system is safety and durability. Meeting Scottish Technical Finfish Standard 2020 has been an interesting process and we\u2019ve managed to work well meeting the requirements,\u201d said V\u00f3nin\u2019s technical moorings engineer Torkil Thompson, who has seen significant developments in the nine years he has been in the aquaculture sector.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on each site\u2019s location and the different environmental data produced, the requirements for secure installations becomes very complex and it\u2019s vital to communicate with site personnel, environmental teams and installers so that we have as much information and data as possible to be certain that systems meet every requirement, especially as we go more to exposed sites,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
V\u00f3nin export manager Nathan Breeze commented that V\u00f3nin and the Crosby Group have an aquaculture product alliance, with Crosby products at the heart of Vonin\u2019s Nordic Diamond Mooring system.<\/p>\n
\u201cCrosby products are designed and manufactured for the rigours of the challenging operational conditions in aquaculture, focusing on fatigue, shock resistance, strength and corrosion protection,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll manufacturing plants producing hardware for our aquaculture range are located in Western Europe and we have full traceability.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kris Laird commented that it was \u2018highly reassuring\u2019 to be able to see V\u00f3nin installations for himself at exposed sites in the Faroes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe now have a number of V\u00f3nin nets and mooring systems installed and I\u2019m very satisfied with the quality of the equipment and the short timeframes V\u00f3nin worked to to deliver these.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m delighted that Mowi chose us to be a preferred supplier of moorings and nets to their sites,\u201d said Nathan Breeze.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are making real progress in the UK and getting the right feedback from clients who are happy with our short delivery timeframes and pricings \u2013 but what is critical is that they are happy with the quality of our service and equipment, that for me is most important.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
With high-energy aquaculture sites to oversee in Scotland\u2019s Western Isles, Mowi Regional Seawater Manager Kris Laird wanted to see for himself how Faroese Fish Farmers operate in highly exposed environments that regularly withstand exceptional hostile conditions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3342,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"sponsor":[],"class_list":["post-3341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aquaculture"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3341"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3343,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3341\/revisions\/3343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3341"},{"taxonomy":"sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldfishing.net\/icefish-conference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/sponsor?post=3341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}