Images: World's Longest Fish Farm Launched at Yantai Shipyard

The giant floating fish farm Havfarm 1 has officially launched from its harborside construction dock at Yantai CIMC Raffles Shipyard in Shandong, China. Despite being affected by the emerging global COVID-19 situation, the project has seen steady construction progress during the last few weeks, according to designer NSK. 

Havfarm 1 will arrive in Norway during the summer of this year, but the exact timeline for the completion, final launch, and testing of onboard equipment is not yet known. First operations were originally scheduled for the second quarter of 2020, but current public health measures have created challenges. The project relies heavily on personnel from multiple suppliers, and strict travel restrictions to and from China have created an element of uncertainty regarding the completion process, operator Nordlaks said. 

Although Yantai Shipyard is located far from the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, the extended Chinese holidays and self-quarantine regulations began affecting the project early on. The situation at Yantai is returning to normal, Nordlaks said, but Chinese restrictions on overseas travelers have recently been implemented to prevent new outbreaks.

All images courtesy NSK

Nordlaks signed a contract to build the semi-catamaran Havfarm 1 design in early 2018. Its original hull design measured 430 meters long, which would have made it one of the longest manmade objects currently afloat. The revised design launched this month is 385 meters in length, according to fishing industry media.

The facility is designed to accommodate up to 10,000 tonnes of salmon at a time, divided into six separate mesh pens of 50 meters square by ten meters deep. The structure is built for wave heights of up to 10 meters and can be raised an additional four meters if needed during foul weather. 

When installed at its offshore anchorage near Hadseløya, Norway, Havfarm will have much more area in which to disperse the waste products associated with fish farms. It will also be more resistant to sea lice infestation than conventional installations, according to designer NSK.