Seatools Delivers Fish Farm Cleaning Solution for De Maas SMC

On behalf of De Maas SMC, Dutch subsea technology company Seatools completed a feasibility and conceptual design study on a Remotely Operated Mort Collector (ROMoC).

The study resulted in an automated mort collection system capable of effectively collecting dead fish in large-scale offshore fish farms as currently developed by De Maas SMC.

Seatools designed a fish farm cleaning system drawing on in-house knowledge of subsea equipment design and subsea navigation and positioning. The design is backed by a self-positioning control algorithm to ensure the entire pen is covered within the given time limit.

“Next to a 100% coverage of the fish pen surface, the concept had to have a minimal impact on the operations and design of the offshore fish farm. This meant the system had to come with a minimum footprint, weight, and required installed power. By relying on simple and effective principles as well as an advanced control system, we were able to keep the design compact and lightweight. Furthermore, the design’s burden on the farm’s primary operations and setup are kept at a minimum. Which is expressed by – among others – the fact that the collector can run without requiring any operator attention for up to 12 hours on end,” explains Niels Haakman, project manager.

Jan Frumau, managing director at Seatools, said: “The aquaculture industry’s inclination toward increasingly remote and hostile offshore environments begs the development of new technologies characterized by reliability, durability, and solid failure-handling strategies. Moreover, a high level of automation facilitates controlled and efficient operations. These are required when operating at remote locations that incur significantly higher operational costs. Thank to our extensive subsea technology toolbox, multidisciplinary engineering capabilities, and advanced control engineering capabilities, we are able to deliver smart and cost-efficient aquaculture solutions, such as the fish farm cleaning solution for De Maas SMC.”