USA- Boston-based global leader in technologically advanced aquatic solutions, Innovasea, has introduced FlowFeeder, a waterborne feeding solution that gently delivers feed to fish below the surface, minimizing pellet damage and loss.
This kind of damage and loss is common with air-blown feeding systems making for inefficiency in feeding systems in aquaculture.
“Air-blown systems are messy and leave behind a lot of dust and oily feed residue in the pipes. That requires regular cleanings that drive up operational and maintenance costs and increase downtime on the feed vessel,” said Langley Gace, senior vice president of Innovasea, in a press release.
The FlowFeeder introduced by Innovasea is an end-to-end feeding solution that can deliver feed to multiple pens from a single, centralized point. It mixes feed pellets with water on the feed vessel and then gently carries the mixture into fish pens.
“Rather than blowing feed pellets onto the surface above the fish pen where they can drift away, FlowFeeder delivers the feed at the depths where fish prefer to congregate. That means less waste and better feed conversion ratios – key to profitability at any fish farm,” Gace added.
According to Innovasea, the waterborne delivery system reduces energy costs by up to 50 percent – with farms that use diesel generators to power their feeding operations shrinking their carbon footprint.
Additionally, waterborne delivery reduces damage to feed pellets, which are often fractured when blown through pipes by an air compressor.
Innovasea also explains that the FlowFeeder features a proprietary feed dispenser placed at the species’ ideal feeding depth to distribute the pellets more evenly throughout the pen.
Moreover, because the feed pellets are delivered at depth, FlowFeeder enables farm operators to feed even when there are heavy waves, strong currents, or surface threats such as harmful algal blooms or sea lice.
This advantage is especially significant in open-ocean aquaculture, an increasingly popular system as the world turns to mariculture and cage culture to meet the rising demand for protein.
According to Innovasea, the FlowFeeder can be used with Innovasea’s submersible fish pens and traditional surface pens from other manufacturers.
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