Burger entrepreneur turns to ecological fish farming

Monday, 21 March, 2011

MARETARIUM.FIBurger entrepreneur Heikki Salmela has generally been successful in his business ventures. Now he has put carp to work to clean up the waters.Heikki Salmela, the proprietor of the Finnish burger chain Hesburger, is expanding his operations into environmentally friendly fish farming.  Clewer Oy, which is part of the Salmela-yhtiöt group of companies, has developed a biological water purification method that allows fish to be farmed in a closed water system.

Clewer is building a rearing tank at the Turku Biolaakso site with a capacity for 4,000 kilos of fish.  The newspaper Turun Sanomat was the first to cover the story of the Salmela fish farming project.

Bacteria in the fish tank will take care of purifying the water while a bioreactor will remove surplus waste from the water.  If the system works according to plan, fish could be produced virtually anywhere.

Mr Salmela told Turun Sanomat that one of the objectives was to reduce transport of fish around the globe.  At the same time it would be possible to eliminate the environmental emissions created by fish farming.

Mr Salmela intends building the fish farming facility next to the Hesburger factory.  Annual production could reach as much as 500,000 kilos of fish each year.

Clewer has been rearing carp in a pilot facility for two years. According to Mr Salmela the fish have thrived in the purified waters.

http://www.goodnewsfinland.com/archive/burger-entrepreneur-turns-to-ecological-fish-farming/ 

New Regulations For Welfare Of Farmed Fish - Thursday, October 14, 2010 The Fish Site Intra Fish 

FINLAND - A new government decree will lay down detailed requirements relating to the welfare of farmed fish.

This is the first legislation of its kind relating to the welfare of farmed fish.

The new regulation will lay down minimum requirements for fish farm structures, equipment, remediation and water quality, as well as for the equipment and accessories used in the handling of the fish.

The decree also defines minimum requirements for the monitoring and safeguarding of the wellbeing of the fish, and for the feeding and handling of fish and moving of fish within the farm.

The general requirements for animal welfare laid down in the Animal Welfare Act and Decree must also be complied with in fish farming. Specific requirements for the killing, slaughter and transport of fish are set out in animal welfare and animal transport regulations.

The decree is to be adopted from November 2010 and applies to farmed fish.