SMARTAQUA has a Patent Pending

SMARTAQUA has a Patent Pending

Every year, 50 million lumpfish are required by the Salmon farming industry in Europe to eat a parasite called ‘Sealice’ off salmon. Sealice are external parasites that feed on the skin and mucus of Atlantic salmon, and they can reduce salmon growth, health, and welfare, causing multimillion-pound commercial losses to the industry globally. Lumpfish are an efficient cleaner fish that eat these parasites and can reduce the use of anti-sealice drugs by 80%.

Lumpfish have pelvic fins that are modified into a suction disc on the underside and this disc allows them to cling to certain surfaces. Suction-cup deformity results in lumpfish not being able to cling to surfaces at cage sites where greater turbulence or flow rates can exhaust fish that do not cling.

SMARTAQUA have developed a method of separating healthy lumpfish from those with suction-cup deformities, that has been filed at the UK patent office, which will significantly reduce the number of fish with non-functional suction cups being sent to salmon cages.

 

 

SMARTAQUA: aquaculture beyond food is supported by the Welsh Government and the European Regional Development Fund.

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