Commercial land-based farming of European lobster (Homarus gammarus L.) in recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) using a single cage approach

Abstract

In the past, farming of the European lobster in land-based systems has turned out to be difficult. The ideal system for rearing lobsters individually should be relatively inexpensive to construct and operate, simple to maintain, based on automatic feeding and self-cleaning of tank and cages, maintain ideal water quality conditions, use space in three dimensions, enable high densities, conserve water at high temperatures, ensure good survival and permit easy access to the livestock for inspection and feeding. Several attempts have been made to mass-produce these cannibalistic crustaceans under controlled environments. However, none of the many previous attempts have proved to be successful in incorporating all of these features into a single design. Thus, the development of land-based lobster farming has been severely hampered by lack of suitable technology and production methods. The major constraints have been the need for individual rearing cages to avoid cannibalism, need of heated water, lack of high quality dry food, high labor costs, inadequate technological solutions and high investment costs.Today, Norwegian Lobster Farm operates the world's first land-based RAS farm producing plate sized lobsters. The company also operates its own brood-stock department and a hatchery for production of IV-stage juveniles. The system contains a patented single cage technology with moving bed biofilters where the recirculation system is designed to fit the water management. Automated solutions for accurate feeding, robots supporting mass-rearing of the IV-stage juveniles and image processing programs for daily monitoring of each single individual have been developed and successfully tested.