New feeding barge for Mowi in the Faroes

Salmon producer Mowi has taken delivery of a new feed barge with a silo capacity of 1,000 tonnes. The barge, provided by GroAqua, will operate in one of Mowi's farming sites in the Faroe Islands. With 16 feeding lines the 39 by 13 metre feeding barge is intended to optimise feeding by having one feeding line per cage, feeding the whole farming site simultaneously. Set up for remote operations, the feeding barge is built for high-energy sites with, the ability to withstand significant wave heights of HS 5.5m – equivalent to a seven on the Beaufort scale. Ólavur Thomsen, Barge Project Manager with GroAqua, said: “We have been working closely with Mowi since the beginning of the project 11 months ago. Close cooperation with the customer is key to a successful delivery such as this one, and our goal is always to deliver our projects on time. Even though the time frame for designing and building this project was tight, we delivered the barge on time according to the contract.” To meet Mowi’s requirements the barge has been designed to minimise environmental impact. It will run on power from the shore, and the equipment onboard is designed to reduce noise pollution while it is operating. The feeding barge was built in Poland by the GroAqua barge building division. GroAqua has divisions in the Faroe Islands, Norway, Scotland, Poland, and Denmark, developing and manufacturing innovative technology and IT systems for the fish farming industry.