Aqua Nor 2019 – Logistics
Sailing into a storm Norwegian Gannet could transform the salmon farming sector ‘if reason prevails’ Norwegian salmon production. Since its launch last year, the Norwegian Gannet has processed 14,000 tonnes of fish, from 13 different fish farmers, at 21 locations, involving 41 trips, including one to Scotland (see next page). It is environmentally friendly, with its hybrid propulsion cutting carbon emissions, and has even won a mention in the Guinness Book of Records for the most energy efficient engine. The Norwegian Gannet also has welfare benefits for the fish, said Arnesen. Normally, well boats pump fish on board and then transport it to a processing plant – and in Norway this means also keeping the fish in ‘waiting cages’. After processing, the fish is transported, 70 per cent by ferry to Europe and 30 per cent by air freight. ‘The Gannet goes to the cage and does all this process in one handling of the fish, instead of three, so it is good for fish welfare, he said. ‘The biggest disease risk in the industry is in the transport of live fish and we have solved that.’ What’s more, the handling of the fish is different from a well boat, where farmers are accustomed to loading fish on board as fast as possible. ‘With the Norwegian Gannet, we harvest as the fish come into the boat and the fish should be stressed as little as possible, so the way they are crowded is very important,’ said Arnesen. HE Norwegian Gannet, the floating salmon ‘We go to the farm a day or two before the Gannet arrives to talk to the farmprocessor, was designed to revolutionise the er and explain the procedure. We teach them what will happen and we’ve seen way fish are handled, processed and transimproving results from this on the quality.’ ported, but in its first year of operation the He said the vessel is still in its start-up phase and will be further optimised, but vessel has sailed into a political storm. already, Nofima, the Norwegian research organisation, which is documenting Carl-Erik Arnesen, CEO of Hav Line, which owns its results, has found the Gannet is a boost for animal welfare. the ship, told a seminar in Trondheim that it had The boat can go from one cage to the next and then, once full, will deliver attracted much attention in its inaugural year, with to Denmark, at a competitive cost, said Arnesen – ‘the more fish we get, the some 720 stories appearing in the press, by his cheaper we can do it’. calculation. ‘It’s a very special story,’ said Arnesen. ‘We’ve had But it is the Gannet’s very efficiency that has provoked a political backlash. close relations with the authorities and have all the New fisheries minister Harald T. Nesvik, at first arguing that the ship would take processing jobs away from rural communities, then used an out of date Norwelicences in place, money from the Department of gian quality regulation to halt its progress. Environment, the Department of Transport and a The rule, created in the 1980s, stipulates that ‘production’ fish (those with lot of support from the last Minister of Fisheries visible defects) must be sorted and the faults corrected before they are trans(Per Sandberg). ‘Everything was fine and then, in late August last ported out of Norway. year, we got a new Minister of Fisheries who turned it all round and withdrew the licence we had been given to operate fully.’ The explanation is complex and affects Norway only. The Norwegian Gannet, 10 years in the planning, is the future of fish farming, or certainly a part of it, claim its pioneers. It collects fish at the cage site, harvests and processes it on board, and delivers it to port – Hirtshals in Denmark – for packaging and exporting to final destinations across the continent and beyond. The ship has the capacity for 1,000 tonnes of salmon and can handle up to 150,000 tonnes a year, more than 10 per cent of the current total
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Left: Ove H. Wilhelmsen and Carl-Erik Arnesen in Trondheim
Below: The Norwegian Gannet at a salmon pen Opposite: The ship cuts fish handling and improves welfare (Norwegian Gannet photos courtesy of Hav Line)
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05/09/2019 10:00:28