The live fish carrier will be 116 metres long with a breadth of 23 metres. The vessel will be named Ronja Storm with fish tank capacity of 7.450 cubic metres of water, more than twice the amount of normal-sized live fish carriers. In addition, the vessel has capacity for carrying 5.000 cubic metres of freshwater.

After delivery, the ship will enter a 10-year contract for the fish farming company Huon in Tasmania, outside of Australia. Tasmania is short on freshwater both in terms of quality and availability. This is solved through equipment within the new Havyard design that can produce nearly 17 million litres of freshwater a day.
“Salmon hospital”

The freshwater will be used towards the “salmon hospital”. Fish are taken out of the netpens and will swim around in freshwater in order to fight the amoebaean gill disease AGD. In Tasmania, this happens roughly once a month. With the gigantic freshwater facilities and the enormous tanks, fish can be put in a 240-metre netpen while being treated simultaneously.

- This is a great advantage and will reduce stress among the fish. As such, this ensures fish of higher quality while also improving fish growth, says CEO Roger Halsebakk of Sølvtrans.

The large production of freshwater, in addition to cleansing facilities that provides for reuse of water several times over, ensure that the vessel can continuously carry out work at sea, without having to head ashore to refill water as frequently as other vessels have to.

Salmon are loaded into freshwater tanks where the fish swim around for three hours, while it can also be transported into a new netpen.
Ronja Storm is going to be fitted out for fish sorting, transport of slaughter fish and smolt, as well as having medication facilities. There is emphasis on stability and reduced noise levels on-board.

The world’s largest live fish carrier will cost just over NOK 500 million.
- We take no shortcuts in terms of equipment for and transport of live fish. After 31 years in this industry and as pioneers within the development of live fish carriers, we know what it takes.

Project that breaks new barriers
Sølvtrans and Havyard have worked together on projects before, and this time Havyard Group becomes total supplier. Havyard Design & Solutions delivers design and engineering, Havyard Ship Technology will do the outfitting, Havyard Power & Systems delivers diesel-electric machinery and propulsion system, automation and bridge solutions, and MMC First Process will provide for everything connected to fish handling equipment.

- We are very pleased that our experiences from construction of previous live fish carriers can be carried into this specific project that breaks new barriers, both in regards to size and technology, say Sales Manager Frank Edvard Vike and Senior Designer Kjetil Myren.
Sølvtrans will benefit from Havyard offering a total solution and package where the shipowner makes use of the synergies created, and as such has one business partner to deal with.

- We are looking forward to cooperating with Sølvtrans and we view this as an important contract for Havyard Group, says CEO Geir Johan Bakke of Havyard.
- The contract also shows that with two live fish carriers already in our portfolio and with a third being constructed, we are a leading participant both within the construction of live fish carriers, as well as being a supplier of equipment for this industry.

With this contract, Sølvtrans takes the step from being a major customer for MMC First Process within fish handling, to buying a completely new vessel. Roger Halsebakk says that they are very much looking forward to both the cooperation with Havyard and completion of the vessel.

- We chose Havyard Group based on a full evaluation where both cost and quality were decisive. Moreover, Havyard can prove their experience of already having constructed several live fish carriers. This helps Sølvtrans in order to provide assurance that we will deliver a good service to our business partner Huon, with fish welfare having top priority.