BioMar unveiled a new RAS feed concept, LARVIVA ORBIT, that aims to improve the efficiency of marine nurseries. It will support an industry move of a prolonged time at the hatchery for fry before they are transferred to sea. This will aid in the expected acceleration in the use of RAS technology in marine nurseries, and thereby support the development of hatchery businesses for marine fish species.

“We understand how challenging RAS operations can be as this farming technology demands skilled manpower, extra attention to the fish, the system and the importance of specially designed feeds to accommodate the requirements and ultimately the success of RAS technology,” explained Joana Amaral, product manager for marine fish hatcheries at BioMar. 

Early-stage marine fry can be extra fragile to handle and have additional challenges with life at sea. During recent years, marine hatcheries, primarily in the Mediterranean area, have experienced the need for increasing land-based fry production. This resulted in a change of mindset and an accelerated shift from traditional flow-through systems to more advanced technologies such as RAS especially for the nursery and pre-ongrowing phases. 

“At BioMar we have established solid expertise within the RAS segment based on extensive research and development, and experience gained from years of fruitful collaboration with RAS farmers around the world. We felt it was the right time to transfer all this expertise to marine nurseries,” Amaral said.  

This new feed concept comes with optimized recipes, improved physical pellet quality and a proven impact on feces stability and reduction of small solids which all answer the specific needs of RAS facilities. 

“Our years of experience have shown us that the dialogue between the hatchery staff and our BioFarm technical advisors is very important to achieve success. That is why “let’s do RAS together” is our way of telling our farmers that they are not alone when adapting to changing business conditions or when implementing new technologies,” stated Henrik Aarestrup, VP LATAM, Shrimp & Hatchery, BioMar Group. 

The new feed concept, LARVIVA ORBIT, comes with a solution for advancing Mediterranean marine hatchery operations and is expected to support the industry during this period where the impact of the COVID-19 crisis is felt drastically in this market. LARVIVA ORBIT feeds will be available from June 2021.