The fish
A fish is a fish, right? All slippery and wet, filled with marine delights? Right?
Wrong.
Just like any other livestock, the quality of the meat is closely related to what it eats. Exercise, living space and water quality also make a great difference to taste and nutritional value of the finished product.
That's why we don't use copper in our nets to keep them clean - we use water instead. We don't treat disease through aggressive use of antibiotics. We don't feed our fish GMOs. We don't use artificial colouring.
In short:
We would never knowingly do something that might jeopardize the environment on which we and our local community rely. Because it simply makes sense
Fish swimming
Strong
Hvis du besøker anleggene til Kvarøy fiskeoppdrett, ser du laks som hopper i luften og vifter med halen. Vi liker å tro at det er fordi de er så glade for å være på Kvarøy, men gitt laksens kaldblodige natur er det nok ikke det som ligger bak.
Det vi i alle fall vet, er at fisken vår er sterk. Siden fjorden rundt og under anleggene våre er 120 meter dyp, har laksen mer vann og strøm å boltre seg i, noe som gir et lavere fettinnhold og en høyere kvalitet på kjøttet.
Healthy
As fish farmers, we try to mimic nature's way of raising salmon. Carefully picked sites with just the right water conditions are important in that respect, but how we manage the site itself, as well as the salmon, is just as important. Our pens also have a low density of salmon (20kg/m3), greatly reducing problems connected to overpopulation.
LUMPSUCKERS
Sea lice are one of the biggest concerns for fish farmers, and many use medical treatment to fight it. That creates pollution and some of the remedies are even banned in the USA. At Kvarøy we use lumpsuckers. They are cute little fish who, as the name implies, suck the salmon free of lice.
They're environmentally friendly and surely much more fun for the salmon.
Fish in/
Fish out
The ratio between how many kilograms fish and marine organisms (fish meal/fish oil) that are used in the feed in order to produce 1 kilogram of salmon, is one of the main concerns in sustainable fish farming. Focusing on efficiency and using vegetable sources for proteins have greatly reduced our foot-print on the wild fish and we are proud to say that we have a ratio of < 1:1, i.e. we produce more fish than what we consume.
No copper
It's vital for the salmon that the nets on site are clutter free in order to ensure water flow and cleanliness. Many farmers use copper on their nets in order to prohibit growth of algae, but this results in harmful runoff that settles as a pollutant on the seabed. At Kvarøy fish farm we use natural wax and a diver with a high-pressure water jet twice a year. It's a little more complicated and costly to do it this way, but then again who said great salmon should be cheap?
CHEMICAL- FREE
We don't use chemicals to boost the colour of the salmon, or to otherwise manipulate their growth, taste or appearance.