Grieg Seafood reaches first milestone in RAS project

Grieg Seafood is approaching the completion of its Gold River Hatchery project – also known as the RAS 34 project – celebrating reaching the first of three milestones in mid-February of this year.

The project is in the process of expanding the Gold River hatchery to include a RAS building to double the company's smolt capacity. It will be replacing two inefficient flow-through buildings and improving water usage. The current stage in the project marks a "huge achievement," Rocky Boschman, Managing Director of Grieg Seafood, said.

"We are excited to share that the tanks within the new hatchery facility are being filled with water. This is a huge achievement … The new facility will effectively double our smolt capacity at our hatchery and allow us to start to explore keeping our fish in the hatchery for longer which will reduce the time required in the ocean," he explained. "With our constantly evolving research and science into new and better fish culture processes, we now know that there are benefits to both the wild and farmed populations if we allow our fish to grow larger than the traditional 100-gram size at which we have been generally transferring smolts to our ocean farms."

Image credit: Grieg Seafood BC

By adding water to the six tanks currently housed in the RAS 34 building means that the team working at the hatchery will be able to begin operating the system, creating necessary water conditions required to ensure the grow up of four million smolts.

"With a new system, you have to ensure you create the right water conditions," Scott Peterson, Grieg Freshwater Director, said. "We are doing this for our system which between the six tanks, has the capacity to hold just under two million litres of water. In order to support all of this, we have two biofilters which each have the capacity to treat and filter 200,000 litres of water per minute. The new facility, which we call RAS 34 at the moment, will really become the hub of our hatchery operations once completed later this year."

Adding water to the system tanks and biofilters marks a step closer to the end of the project, but this is one of three milestones. A management system for the facility is due to be completed in March, with the first fish being added in April.

Grieg Seafood will be hosting events later this year after the project is finished, to "celebrate with local communities and our employees," Boschman said. "We are hoping that by working with local Nations, the provincial government, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans we will be able to help define what a transition for the industry will look like, and how we can look to invest and grow in that direction once we have industry stability."

The project cost a total of US$24.75 million, and at its peak created 57 fulltime jobs. With the addition of the RAS building, the total capacity of the facility will come to 900 metric tonnes. 

For more information on Grieg Seafood BC visit their website, HERE.