Value chain

Our team includes geneticists who specialize in selecting fish that have characteristics suitable to farming. 

We use those fish as our broodstock – or the parents – of the next generation. As our broodstock fish approach maturity, they are monitored closely by employees to check for the readiness of their eggs. Once they are ready, the eggs and milt are collected for the fertilization process before the eggs are moved into trays within our land-based hatcheries.

This is when things really start to get exciting. The eggs are monitored daily for development, health and signs of disease. Eggs that are developing normally will now have a prominent “eye”, which is the first sign that the egg has been successfully fertilized and is developing normally. 

Although very rare, eggs can contract various bacteria or viruses that can come in through the fresh water supply. The water is treated and filtered several times before coming into contact with the eggs using UV lighting and ozone treatment. In the rare occurrence that some bacteria does enter the system, we have a few treatment options. We can increase the salinity very slightly as freshwater pathogens don’t do well in salt water, but does not harm the eggs. We can also use medication to treat the eggs such as Formalin which is an antibacterial, or we can use a very diluted (less that one percent concentrate) solution of hydrogen peroxide. 

Monitoring of the eggs used to be completed by hand and involved employees painstakingly sorting through racks and racks of eggs to spot and remove individual unfertilized or unhealthy eggs. When you have up to six million eggs in a hatchery, this can take a while. We have egg-sorting machines that use laser and photo technology to sort and separate out the good eggs from the bad eggs with a very high rate of accuracy. 

As the eggs develop, they are transferred to specialized trays created for the next stage of the life cycle - alevin. These racks allows the water to continue to move through as it would in a natural spawning habitat, but provide fingers for the young alevin to rest in-between. 

Alevin have a yolk sac which provides all of their energy and nutritional requirements. The alevin are quite fragile at this stage, so by minimizing their movement and allowing them to conserve energy, we are helping them to develop into strong, healthy fish. 

From alevin, our tiny salmon progress to the fry stage and are becoming more easily identifiable as Atlantic salmon. They are moved from the specially designed trays into large, recirculating tanks. 

At this stage, the fry are introduced to pellet feeding. The fish will eat these pellets throughout their life, but the size and nutritional content will change depending on their size and stage of development.

Before we transport to our sea sites, we perform a health and welfare screening to ensure they are ready for transport. During this exam, the smolts are sorted by size and placed into large, temperature controlled transport tanks. 

By sorting our fish by size, we are ensuring that the feed to fish ration will be as efficient as possible and will be equally dispersed across the farm pen population. As the say, the early bird gets the worm, and in our case, the big fish get the feed pellets. 

In order to receive clearance from our regulators and our internal fish health team, the fish must be healthy, disease-free and showing signs of advanced smoltification before they can be transported to our farms. It is also important to note that sea lice live in saltwater, not fresh, making it impossible for our fish to enter the ocean with any sea lice. 

The transport tanks are temperature controlled and have a filtration system to ensure the fish are continuing to receive oxygen and that their waste is being removed. 

The smolts are loaded into the transport tanks, which are then loaded onto flatbed trailers. They are then transported to a wharf close to the farm site. From there, they are loaded onto a barge and transported to a farm site to be stocked. 

In total, completing the sorting loading and transporting of our fish can usually be accomplished in less than 24 hours. The idea is to sort, load, transport and then stock our farms as quickly as possible to minimize the stress on our fish.

Once at the farm sites, the smolts are entered into the ocean pens. Our fish only account for two percent of the volume in each pen. Salmon travel in a school, which can lead to the appearance of crowding, but they are just doing what salmon naturally do, which is school together for safety.

The health and growth of our fish is the main priority now as fish are left to swim, eat and grow. 

Our employees continuously monitor the health and growth of our fish.

Fish will typically spend between 18 and 24 months at the ocean farm before reaching 5.5 kilograms – which is the size at which we begin to harvest our fish.

By the time the fish reach the point where we are ready to start harvesting, we have spent between three and a half to four years caring for our fish. We have seen them grow from an egg the size of a small pea, to a large adult (5.5 kilogram). 

To begin the process, a grading seine is placed into the pen selected for harvest. The seine is a large net which hangs into the pen and allows smaller fish to pass through, creating a natural separation between the largest fish and the rest of the pen population. 

We harvest our largest fish first and repeat the process for each of the farm’s pens until all of the fish have been harvested. Harvesting our fish from each site can range from weeks to months as we monitor growth, development and farm conditions during the process. 

To harvest our fish, we contract with local harvest boat owners and operators. These specialized boats ensure the fish are harvested in a humane manner. 

Once full, the boat immediately travels to the closest processing plant and delivers the fish for the next stage of the journey from egg to plate.