October 3, 2016
Nippon Steel & Sumikin Engineering Co., Ltd.
Nippon Steel & Sumikin Engineering Co., Ltd. (Representative Director and President: Shinichi Fujiwara; Headquarters: Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo; hereinafter "NSENGI"), with cooperation from Nippon Suisan Kaisha, Ltd. (Representative Board Member, President & CEO: Norio Hosomi; Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; hereinafter "Nissui"), will carry out offshore verification testing of a world-first large-scale open water aquaculture system at a Coho salmon aquaculture farm operated by Nissui group-company Yumigahama Suisan Kaisha, Ltd. (Representative Director and President: Hiroshi Tsuruoka; Headquarters: Sakaiminato-shi, Tottori Prefecture) in the seas off the coast of Sakaiminato, Tottori Prefecture. The verification test will be carried out in the aim of achieving implementation of the system, in which feed is automatically supplied to the fish cage from a platform-mounted feeding device.
Consumption of marine products has doubled from 100 million tons to 200 million tons in the past 20 years, along with a rise in global population. This growth in demand is met by the aquaculture industry. While output from the boat-based fishing industry that targets natural resources (catch fishing industry) has largely levelled-off at 100 million tons since the beginning of the 1990s, the aquaculture industry (farm fishing industry) has increased its output significantly over this period, from a starting point of approximately ten million tons to a level now surpassing the boat-based fishing industry. This has been achieved by means of Chinese freshwater aquaculture as well as salmon farming in Norway and Chile, among other schemes.
Throughout the world, conventional aquaculture is carried out in areas of calm sea, such as in bays or zones sheltered by islands that are less affected by rough seas. In addition to the necessity to avoid interference with various other forms of fishing activity - such as those that use fixed nets - small-scale aquaculture businesses are suffering from a shortage of manpower. We have firmly set our sights on the development of this large-scale, open water system as a next-generation technology that offers a solution to these issues for the aquaculture industry, utilizing our experience in plant engineering and offshore infrastructure maintenance acquired over more than 40 years.
Following completion of the offshore verification test, NSENGI intends to push ahead with commercial production of the system, with the aim of achieving our first commercial sale in fiscal year 2017. We hope to promote the transformation of the Japanese aquaculture industry into an export-oriented sector by targeting foreign markets - where there is urgent demand - as a sales channel for the farmed fish. We also hope to contribute to the improvement of the global fisheries industry in the future, through the export of this system to foreign countries in which the marine areas suitable for aquaculture activities have reached saturation, in a similar manner to Japan.
1) Platform: 1 Unit (approx. 300m2)
2) Silo (Feed Mixture): 2 Units (approx. 25m3/unit)
3) Subsea Piping for Feeding: From platform to cages (approx. 150-400m)
1) Design, production, construction (transport/installation), data acquisition/analysis of the Automatic Feeding System: NSENGI
2) Fish Production: Yumigahama Suisan Kaisha, Ltd.
Conceptual Illustration of Large-scale Open Water Aquaculture System
[Contact Details]
For more information, please contact below
URL: https://www.eng.nssmc.com/english/contact/
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