SOUTH AUSTRALIAN aquaculture company Clean Seas Seafoods’ new automatic feeder barge was delivered to Port Adelaide on Friday (20 July) by Swire Projects MPP Pacific Innovation.
The barge, named Eyre Spirit, was designed by Hobart’s Southern Ocean Solutions and built in Vietnam to service Clean Seas’ yellowtail kingfish farming operations in waters off Port Lincoln. Clean Seas claims to be the global leader in full cycle breeding, farming, processing and marketing of yellowtail, considered a premium gourmet seafood, and the largest producer outside Japan.
The $6 million, 650-tonne barge will drive cost savings, improve feed conversion and reduce waste, the company says.
Following an operational review in FY 24 Clean Seas opted to consolidate farming operations across different leases into Port Lincoln. The new farming footprint leverages 3,696 tonnes of available biomass capacity across three leases in the greater Port Lincoln area and all within 25km of the company’s base inside the Port Lincoln Marina. In order to improve efficiencies, these three leases have been set up as specialised nursery, growout and harvest sites, allowing specific infrastructure to be deployed at each site.
Eyre Spirit will be deployed to the growout lease while the company’s existing barge, Kingfish 5, will be deployed on the nursery lease. Once fully commissioned ahead of the upcoming summer growing season, circa 90% of Clean Seas Kingfish will be able to be fed remotely from the company’s office in Port Lincoln, driving cost savings, improving feed conversion ratios and efficiency and reducing waste.
Clean Seas expects to recover the cost of Eyre Spirit and associated investment within four years, while estimating the equipment will last for about 20 years.
