RAS Talk

CEO Ragnar Joensen discusses the Nordic Aqua Partners project in Ningbo, China. He highlights the facility’s strategic location near Shanghai which allows them access to 800 million consumers within 12 hours. The Atlantic salmon project started with a 4,000-ton capacity, expanded to 8,000 tons, and plans to reach 20,000 tons. Ragnar estimates profitability by the end of this year.

Last year, Lago Sofia became the first Chilean aquaculture farm to be WELF-CERT certified for its animal welfare standards. CTO Daniel Elton shares their approach to animal welfare in RAS systems, emphasizing the five domains defined by the OIE: feeding, environmental parameters, behaviour, and mental well-being. He also introduces a new venture, Blue Waters Aquaculture Engineering, where they can offer their technological expertise to design RAS projects for others.

David Serino, director of Aquaculture Research & Development at Carteret Community College, discussed the potential of striped bass in land-based aquaculture. He highlighted the benefits of retrofitting existing sites, such as a former hog farm in North Carolina, to create a 1,500-ton annual production facility. The project aims to scale up production gradually, leveraging existing infrastructure and partnerships to enhance efficiency and reduce costs.

SalmoGen Company was first established in 2022 to develop a St. Johns River salmon strain for commercial aquaculture production. The broodstock is being developed at the National Cold Water Marine Aquaculture Center by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) program in Maine. General manager, Nick King, shares insights about establishing a new salmon genetics company for North America and how the new company is gearing up for its first commercial sale of eggs in fall 2026. 

Success in RAS can come in all shapes and sizes. At RASTECH 2025 (June 9-10 in San Diego, Calif., USA), our keynote panel explores how their farms forged their own path of profitability, and on their own terms.Our panelists:Thorsten Vammen is the general manager of FREA Solutions, based in Denmark. FREA AS is fully recirculated facility raising rainbow trout in Felding, Denmark. Located just a few metres from FREA Solutions’ headquarters, the facility has been operating since 2014, producing over 2,800 tonnes of fish annually across two 4,000 m² buildings.Sara Rademaker is the founder and CEO of American Unagi, a glass eel recirculating hashtag#aquaculture farm in Waldoboro, Maine. American Unagi is the first and only producer and processor in the U.S. of locally sourced and harvested American glass eel. The large-scale farm was built in 2023 to produce 240 tonnes annually and plans to double its capacity within the year.Yosuke Kurihara is the co-founder and CEO of ARK Inc. based in London, U.K. and Tokyo, Japan. Established in 2020, the company developed a small-scale, 10-square-metre Closed Recirculating Aquaculture System (CRAS) known as "ARK" that supports off-the-grid aquaculture with solar power generation and a solar hot water supply. There are currently six units installed and in operation in cities across Japan.

Bendik Fyhn Terjesen is the head of Land-Based Innovation and Development at Cermaq Global. He shares how one of the largest traditional salmon net pen companies became a pioneer of recirculating aquaculture technology. He provides insight on how Cermaq has grown its smolt RAS production over the years and where the company's hopes lie for future expansion.

John Hansen, a project director in the RAS industry, discussed his experience and responsibilities, including managing design and construction for land-based fish farms. He emphasized the importance of early involvement in projects to ensure constructability and avoid costly changes. He also stressed the need for simplicity in design to keep costs and timelines manageable.

Tommi Mäkinen, chief technology officer and head of Finnforel Technologies, talks about the company's philosophy of making each process of rainbow trout RAS production sustainable and innovative. He shares a breakdown of their new Varkaus gigafactory and the lessons they learned from its previous pilot systems to make its large-scale facility optimized from egg to packaged filet.

Reflecting on the company’s first year of production, CEO Martin Rasmussen emphasizes Andfjord Salmon’s concept of combining the natural benefits of the sea with the advantages of being on land, leveraging the company's unique location near the Gulf Stream for optimal water temperature and quality.

Aqua Founders Capital managing directors, Ohad Maiman and Thue Holm, share insights on the challenges they hope to address in the recirculating aquaculture industry. They also offer an update on their latest projects, Farm in a Box and The Black Cod Company. This episode is a live recording of the keynote session at RASTECH 2024 Conference and Trade Fair on June 5, 2024 in Charlotte, N.C., USA.

In our new mini-series, “5 To Watch”, recorded ahead of RASTECH 2024 in Charlotte, N.C., USA (June 5-6, 2024), host Mari-Len De Guzman talks with Callum Graham of Octaform about their tank technology for new RAS projects, fish welfare, and restorative solutions for degraded concrete tanks. Also, who and what to expect at Octaform’s booth at this year’s RASTECH event.This episode is sponsored by Octaform.

In our new mini-series, “5 To Watch”, recorded ahead of RASTECH 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina (June 5-6, 2024), host Mari-Len De Guzman talks with Michael Malone of Aquaculture Systems Technologies about their new incubation system, bead filtration and wastewater treatment technologies. Also, who and what to expect at AST’s booth at this year’s RASTECH event.This episode is sponsored by Aquaculture Systems Technologies.

Research scientist, John Davidson, and The Freshwater Institute team are conducting some of the leading research around understanding off-flavour in recirculating aquaculture systems. In this episode, he shares his latest findings with co-hosts Jean Ko Din and Justin Henry. They talk about how conversations around off-flavour in the industry have changed over time.