Our Atlantic Salmon are raised in a saltwater
closed-loop land-based facility unlike any other.
For millions of years, Atlantic salmon have hatched in the many rivers along the East Coast of North America before migrating into the Atlantic Ocean. When they finally return to their home river, the salmon fight their way upstream before laying their eggs and beginning the cycle all over again.
Our salmon fishery is designed to mirror that complex ecosystem, but on land – protecting wild salmon populations from both disease and overfishing. Just like wild Atlantic salmon, our fish start their lives in fresh water and then "migrate" to saltwater as part of their natural development.
Introducing RAS, our proprietary Recirculating Aquaculture System.
RAS stands for Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS), meaning that our water is constantly monitored, filtered, and recycled throughout the facility. What sets our system apart is that through extensive research and development we have eliminated the requirement to discharge our fishery waste back into the ocean. Waste solids are taken away to generate electricity. Waste water is cleaned and returned back to the facility. Nothing is discharged back to the environment.
Because our system is fully self contained, our salmon are free of sea lice and other fish diseases. This means they require zero antibiotics. From incubation to harvest, they are fed only sustainably-sourced marine proteins and oils, without growth hormones, ensuring their life cycle follows that of Atlantic salmon in the wild as closely as possible.
Incubation
Certified disease-free Atlantic salmon eggs are incubated in fresh water.
Hatching
After a couple of weeks of incubation, the young fry begin to hatch.
Fry
Fry are moved into first-feed tanks, where they begin swimming against the current.
Smolt
Mirroring the journey of wild Atlantic salmon, our fish "migrate" from freshwater into dedicated saltwater tanks.
Growout
Once our Atlantic salmon are in their saltwater growout tanks, they remain there until they mature into full grown Atlantic Salmon.
Harvest
When they reach maturity – ranging anywhere from 10 to 14 pounds – our fish are humanely harvested.
What makes our approach unique?
Most land-based aquaculture fisheries recycle some of their water. Unfortunately even discharging only 1% wastewater back into the environment means that in practice, fish waste is simply more concentrated – amounting to hundreds or even thousands of litres of pure effluent. Sustainable Blue is the world's first closed-loop land-based saltwater fishery that re-uses 100% of it's water, with zero wastewater emissions.
