First fish released into Marine Donut pen

Thousands of salmon have been placed into Norway’s novel Marine Donut fish farm for the first time.

It was the day everyone involved with the project had been waiting for, said the Bluegreen Corporation, the thermoplastics company involved with building the 600 tonnes closed containment project. And it appears to have gone totally to plan.

Bluegreen said: “It was a happy, touched and relieved group that overlooked the fishing net at Sekken outside Molde on Friday afternoon. The wellboat arrived in brilliant sunshine with thousands of salmon, each weighing 2.5kg.”

They will be held in the facility by SalMar, Bluegreen’s first Donut customer  until they reach harvest size.

The three people in Bluegreen’s senior management team Nils-Johan Tufte, Geir Andresen and Elg Thunes – were present.

Geir Andresen, who was project manager, has now handed over responsibility for Marine Donut to Erlend Are Larsen, SalMar’s operations manager at the site.

Andresen said: “We are incredibly satisfied with the input! The fish are calm and nice and distribute themselves well in the facility. The day after the postponement, not a single dead fish was recorded.”

The Marine Donut fish pen is so called because it is shaped like the popular baked snack.

According to Bluegreen, it provides premium fish with a minimal environmental footprint in a cost-effective way

The design is also intended to prevent escapes and contamination and minimises the risk of lice as well as ensuring a good feed conversion ratio.

A video of the release can be viewed online.

Fish released into the Marine Donut May 2024 (photo: Bluegreen)