Up to 30% of salmon giant’s production to be covered by lice-zapping robots following deal with Stingray

Nordlaks plans to purchase an additional 50 units of Stingray’s lice killing systems following encouraging biological results. 

Norway’s largest privately owned salmon farmer, Nordlaks, is set to enhance its aquaculture practices with a significant expansion in the use of Stingray’s lice-zapping robots.

This move will increase the deployment of these innovative systems across five or six more Nordlaks facilities, potentially covering up to 30% of the company’s salmon production. The expansion follows the successful integration of twelve lasers in 2022 and twenty in 2023.

The new batch of lasers, expected for delivery in March-April 2024, will continue this trajectory, marking a significant integration of Stingray’s technology into Nordlaks’ operations.

Is this the end for cleaner fish? Lumpfish use declines 63 percent

Stingray, founded in 2012, has been a pioneer in developing technology that monitors and protects around 60 million individual salmon and trout globally. The company’s systems are currently utilized by over 30 producers across more than 70 locations and up to 900 pens.

“We are thrilled about this new contract with Nordlaks and proud to partner with Norway’s largest privately owned salmon farmer as they plan for a sustainable future,” Stingray CEO John Arne Breivik told SalmonBusiness. “The decision to expand the use of our lasers, driven by positive results in fish health, is a testament to the potential of our technology for further growth and development in the industry.”

Stingray’s image-based detection system operates continuously, using a laser beam to eliminate sea lice as fish swim by. This method drastically reduces the need for reactive treatments, presenting an environmentally friendly solution to a problem that inflicts yearly losses of around $1 billion worldwide to the salmon industry.

In a similar move, Mitsubishi-owned salmon farmer Cermaq signed a major deal with Stingray Marine Solutions in October to deploy around 140 of its lasers.

The Oslo-based company is to boost production from 400 nodes this year to between 800 and 1,000 annually by the fiscal year 2024/2025.