To help uphold Mowi’s production capability and market position, the Norwegian-headquartered salmon farming company has started working with Blue Unit Solutions, a Danish company that produces data and visualisation technologies to improve water quality controls in farms.
“The data we receive from Blue Unit is very instructive to us. We have gained completely new knowledge on how things work, and it makes it possible for us to react and adjust, so that we ensure optimal conditions,” said Erik Salveson, COO of the land-based fish farm Steinsvik in Norway.
This farm acted as Mowi’s test location for Blue Unit Solutions.
Blue Unit Solutions is a centralised monitoring system for recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) farms. Specially designed censors collect 13 different water quality parameters from up to 12 locations in the facility at a time. These censors measure parameters including carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, the pH-value, and the hydrogen sulphide (H2S) content.
All are relevant factors for Mowi, but the water’s H2S levels demand special attention from the producer as heightened concentrations can lead to disease and fish mortality.
In case of sudden fluctuations in water quality, Blue Unit’s cloud-based analytics system rapidly informs where and why it is happening.
“What Blue Unit Solution specifically can do for us is supply us with knowledge and data, so we can proactively prevent disasters. By always following the data, we can jump to action immediately in case of fluctuations in for example H2S. By avoiding disasters, we can save a lot of money and prevent fish mortality,” Salveson said.
The Blue Unit Solutions system registers all collected data in a registry that clients can access. They can then anonymously compare benchmark values with similar farms around the globe and become more knowledgeable on specific data.
“Access to the central databank can help producers become more knowledgeable with regards to their own data and performance, and with that create the optimal environment for water quality. The system can help producers with optimisation of feed, improvement of animal welfare, and an improved bottom line,” said David Owen, founder of Blue Unit.
Blue Unit said that it has also amassed a significant knowledge base in how to best analyse and utilise collected data in order to give producers a deeper understanding of water quality and production.
