BREMEN, Germany – A German engineering company is planning to farm salmon across a number of sailing vessels, operating in international waters, in the next few years, Undercurrent News learned at the recent Fish International event in Bremen.

Hamburg-based Next Generation Cargo aims to build five 170-meter-long sailboats by around 2023, each capable of producing 2,500 metric tons of Atlantic salmon, the firm's owner and founder Uwe Kohler told Undercurrent News.

This, he added, was the firm's first plan, for a “small fleet”.

The development of the first vessel – which will operate under the name 'Quadriga' – has been completed, and building is under way at a Chinese shipyard, said Kohler.

“In the coming six months we bring the process technology on board the vessel, do all the numbers and choose partners,” he said. He declined to reveal the investment quantities involved at this stage.

The ship should take around 18 months to construct, he estimated, and the company believes it can start operating it around mid-2020. “Other types of vessel will follow, for coastal regions and local needs,” he added.

Partner Sailing Cargo notes on its website it is looking to introduce an 84.5m long "Sailing Coaster", much smaller than the "Ecoliner", designed for shorter distances and island routes. While in relation to cargo freight, Sailing Cargo appears to be referring to the same vessel designs.

As the vessel will sail in international waters, it does not require a license to farm, he said.

The plan

The Quadriga will receive fingerlings from EU salmon hatcheries, and raise them to harvest size in sea cages contained within the 170m-by-25m vessel. It will rely on solar and wind power, making it a truly environmentally-friendly way to farm fish, Next Generation hopes.

It claims the vessel will be greenhouse gas neutral, and will have maximum flexibility to choose routes which best cater to fish growing. A promotional video for the firm describes the Quadriga as the "first of the Ecoliner class', and also reveals there would be exclusive passenger cabins on board.

The vessel was initially created as a green cargo freight solution, as the video below illustrates.



Hawaii's Kampachi Farms has, in the past, experimented with mobile submerged aquaculture pens for tropical species, including utilizing one fixed mooring or being towed by boats. However, while towing an aquaculture pen through the open ocean means its “footprint” is effectively negligible, the energy usage was not ideal.

Next Generation also claims the vessel will use controlled feeding and will incur “no feed losses”.

Once the Quadriga is in use, and further vessels are under development, the company is planning to develop a hatchery on the German coast, for both salmon and “dorade” (gilt-head bream).

Kohler expects the hatchery to be established within the next four years – “a location and a building is already found”. He confirmed Next Generation and its partners would be looking for investment for this stage.

It already counts Lloyd's Register; the University of Applied Sciences in Saarbrucken, Germany; shipbuilder Peter Dohle Schiffahrts-KG; freight firm Sailing Cargo; and SDC Ship Design & Consulting as partners.