Why do we farm on land and sea?

At Mowi, we work in harmony with the sea and caring for our fish is at the heart of what we do. Mowi uses a combination of farming techniques to ensure our salmon have the best start in life. Whether on land or at sea, we raise our salmon using various farming techniques that closely resemble a salmon’s natural life cycle. Typically, all salmon are anadromous, meaning they spend portions of their life in fresh and sea waters.

Like wild salmon, farmed-raised salmon spend the first part of their life growing in freshwater. Freshwater is essential in the initial stages of farming to produce smolts prior to sea transfer. This involves several stages before the young salmon are ready for the sea. We optimise our land-based freshwater sites so that we can carefully control the environment during the most critical stage of a salmon’s life. Our teams closely monitor everything from water quality to temperature and oxygen levels, ensuring the best conditions and health for our salmon to thrive.

Our salmon begin life as a small pea-sized egg and live in trays for approximately one month before hatching as tiny fish called alevin, which has a yolk sac that provides nutrition until they are large enough to feed themselves. Our salmon then move as fry to freshwater tanks, where they are first fed. They grow to parr until they’re ready to move on to the smolt stage and become young adult salmon. A selection of small salmon may also be transported from freshwater tanks to net pens at our freshwater sites to continue their growth before moving out to sea.

When they are physically ready, our salmon are carefully transferred to our sea-based sites, ensuring we give them the best opportunity to thrive in outdoor conditions. When at sea, the fish stay in our net pens for up to two years until they are big enough to be harvested for market.

At Mowi, we understand the benefits and challenges of farming on both land and sea, and we will always prioritise the health and welfare of our salmon when selecting growing technologies.