SEDRO-WOOLLEY — Janicki Industries, high-tech manufacturer of composite aerospace parts and molds, boat hulls and alternative-energy harvesting equipment, is now waist deep into a new venture: fish tanks.
Janicki just finished manufacturing its second order of contained, in-ocean fish farming tanks for AgriMarine Holdings Inc., based in Vancouver, B.C., and has an agreement to build 10 more for the company.
AgriMarine’s mostly submerged water-based tanks offer significant advantages in efficiency, performance and environmental care over current fish farm designs, said Walker, who has experienced problems with the other systems firsthand.
Walker said his company started farming salmon on the west coast of Vancouver Island with net-cage farms in the ocean, but the harsh realities of open water took their toll on the business. Plankton blooms that deprive water of oxygen wreaked havoc on his fish stock a number of times, killing whole schools of farmed fish before harvesting.
In addition, seals and sea lions found ways to kill fish through the nets, and sea lice infestations attacked juvenile fish.
“After a couple of years, we learned it was impossible to compete with Mother Nature in that situation,” Walker said.
These environmental hurdles and green initiatives pushed by provincial government spurred AgriMarine to move to land-based flow-through tanks, Walker said.
In the land-based tanks, fish waste could be collected and disposed of, and food was not wasted as much as in nets. Predators weren’t a concern and water could be pumped in from deeper water, where sea lice don’t usually live, Walker said.
However, the new system presented a new set of problems.
The tanks were placed above sea level and required two 175-horsepower pumps running 24/7 to keep oxygen-rich seawater in the tanks. Walker said the expense of pumping was too much to make a decent profit off relatively small tanks.
“Our power bills were $1,100 a month just to keep rolling,” Walker said. “So we knew that wasn’t going to be sustainable.”
Walker said company engineers then designed the first version of their enclosed water-based tank, which solved issues in both previous farm systems.
The closed design wards off predators and an integrated pump brings water up to avoid sea lice infestations. Fish waste can also be collected in the tanks and brought to land, where the company donates it for compost, Walker said.
Prototypes of the product were built in China for both freshwater use there and open-water use here. Walker said the freshwater variants are faring fine in calm Chinese reservoirs, but a saltwater prototype tested in rough water in British Columbia needed to be redesigned for strength and easier transport if the company was going to sell the product commercially.
Cashing in on rising demand
Walker said huge interest for his redesigned product is coming from Norway, the global leader in fish farming. According to the AgriMarine website, Norway has more than 1,000 farms and produces 65 percent to 70 percent of the world’s farmed salmon, in tonnage and value. He said new environmental regulations in that country are creating incentives for farmers to switch from net-farming systems, with interest perking in Chile and Lake Huron, Canada, as well.
Walker turned to Janicki to create a strong, easy-to-transport unit for production.
Jim Payant, vice president of marine energy at Janicki, said AgriMarine gave his team designs for the second-generation tank and worked closely with Janicki engineers to create a plan for manufacturing addressed questions of strength, transportability and cost-efficiency.
Bryan Harris, project manager at Janicki, said he used computer models to break the design into pieces that would fit into regular shipping containers — a huge consideration for products of this magnitude.
“Transportation always ends up being a huge part of the cost when you’re building something this big,” Harris said.
Payant said the size and number of products in the order was a change of pace for Janicki, which excels at one-off custom projects. He said dealing with inputs of a quarter-million pounds of Fiberglas and resin per tank was a challenge, but nothing the company couldn’t handle; the first two tanks for the order were finished one month ahead of schedule.
Harris said Janicki will emphasize efficiency in production and cost-reduction to win over farmers currently using other systems as it moves forward.
He said the experience of delving into a new industry was exciting for him and the company, especially considering the upside of the global market.
“That’s one of the cool things about working here, is you learn so much about industries you never knew existed,” Harris said. “To us, we see it as a huge opportunity.”