A new harvest method in Marine Harvest Canada is improving the fish welfare during harvesting, and at the same time ensuring higher product quality and lower costs.
The principal change compared to the old harvest method is that fish are stun, bled and chilled at the production site rather than being transported live over long distances.
- The new harvest method is much better for the fish as it literally swims into the stunning machine where it is rendered uncouncious before it even knows what is going on, says Harvesting Manager Peter Fussell in Marine Harvest Canada, who has been the driving force for this project.
Since the very beginning in 2002 Fussell and his team has tirelessly been chasing improvements in regards to welfare, quality and cost. The system has been through a three step evolutionary process where the fish was first put down by a manual percussion stunner, then by an automatic percussion stunner and manual bleeder and finally by an automatic stunner and automatic bleeder.
The automation of the harvest process has given excellent results with respect to costs and quality. The new equipment has reduced the number of people required for harvesting by more than 50 percent. In addition the welfare of the fish is improved as the fish is stunned and bled almost immediately after leaving the water. All blood water is fully contained, due to bio-security reasons. Finally the new equipment allows a harvest range of more than 200 km’s, still reaching the plant with enough time to process pre-rigor fish.
- This is an ever evolving project and my goal is to further increase quality and decrease costs. As harvest equipment evolves in the future, we are going to continue to evolve with it, says Fussell.