RAS Systems Come With Potential Risks
The failure of a valve in the oxygen control system resulted in a large loss at a state-of-the-art fish farm in Scotland. The valve that failed was part of a system that was quoted as being “robust and reliable” by the company’s operations director.
The operators were able to save a large number of fish at the site; however a decision was taken in regards to which fish could be saved. Marine Harvest invested £26.5 million to construct this modern RAS hatchery, and we estimate the value of the failed component at under £100. The value of the stock lost would be in the region of £1 per fish.
Whilst large RAS systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated there are still risks to the operations. This incident may be put down to an unforeseen incident, and it will be interesting to see how the system changes in the future and if any further redundancy is added to the system.
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