This project aims to test a new pumping mechanism to transport fish from cage to cage as they undergo sea lice treatment. The new pumping concept will be less stressful for fish, and will be affordable to produce.
£150,000
TBC
Pumping is ubiquitous in aquaculture, as a means to extract fish from ponds, cages and tanks, in order to treat for sea lice, vaccinate, or harvest. Stress caused by pumping mechanisms is enough to cause high mortality during lice treatments and vaccinations, or disrupt feeding patterns, which in turn impacts health and lice prevalence. In Aquaculture 326-329 (2012) 178-180 Bjorn Roth et al. explain that when looking into stress factors impacting muscle PH, rigour onset and shelf life, “pumping alone halved the time until maximum rigour from 24 to 12 h post mortem..”
Currently three types of pump are used in aquaculture:
The Coanda pump we have designed, built and tested on this project, avoids contacting fish with the pumping mechanisms, instead using only the flow of water to create suction in a pipe, which is able to move fish gently from the cage. With priming in less than 5 seconds and a head of 8m this is a highly flexible system, allowing gentle pumping for slaughter, lice treatment and fish transits for other treatments. The pump design is lightweight, robust, with high throughput and low stress – with fish having no contact with moving parts.
This grant project has allowed us to model and test a first prototype pump, to secure proof of concept, so that we can now go on to refine the design and engage farms with further real world testing.
Ace Aquatec Ltd