Breeding salmon on land is a new road ahead for the salmon industry and has almost no environmental impact. A new Danish production plant will provide 2,000 tons of salmon per year.

Salmon on land sounds almost as an act against nature; but it does not need to be. It is possible to produce large amounts of salmon at a competitive price – and what is more - almost without any environmental impact. So states Søren Frandsen, creator of Danish Salmon – a new Danish company, which with full speed ahead, is completing a production plant. The plant will in the beginning produce 2,000 tons of salmon per year.

The new plant is constructed in Hirtshals, Denmark where it receives seawater from Skagerak. All the water is treated and recirculated and will percolate locally. It will cause minimum impact on the environment. The plant is the first of its kind in Denmark.

"The global fish production often takes place in fish farming cages in the sea, where it causes an increasing discharge of nutrients and antibiotics. That is why global development moves towards reducing the amount of fish farming cages in the sea, while a production in closed systems will increase", explains Søren Frandsen on the background for the salmon project on land.
"Through a number of years fish have been bred in closed systems in Denmark, recirculating the water. This has built up the expertise enabling a commercial full scale fish production in closed systems", he says.

Minimum envmironmental impact
Orbicon has managed the necessary work with environmental authority approvals for Danish Salmon.
"The plant is technically and environmentally very interesting, because the production on land ensures insignificant environmental impact and very little water consumption", says civil engineer Torsten Ostenfeld from Orbicon.
Hjørring Municipality agrees with this. Thomas Lomholt has been the link between Danish Salmon and the municipality’s departments, taking care of the project’s authority approvals.
"A fish production on land with a high degree of water recirculation and an effective utilisation of nutrients is the future. It is very interesting for Hirtshals, but also very interesting for the whole aquaculture business. The project leads a new road ahead for this industry", says Thomas Lomholt.

Source: www.stateofgreen.com
Photo: Wedigo Ferchland/VisitDenmark.com