In the very beginning...

Bjørn Aspøy comes from a Norwegian family of fish farmers and aqua-culturists and grew up working in the family business of salmon and trout farming. To follow the trends and developments in a rapidly growing industry, the family always came up with innovative solutions and new ideas. In 1997 Bjørn and his wife Alise set out to farm mussels and invested in traditional long-lines for a production of about 100 ton.

They were in for a lot of trouble. First, they got a very high settlement, which weighed the lines and made them difficult to handle. After that they got an invasion of starfish and when manually howling the overly heavy lines up to remove the starfish; their full future harvest of mussels released back into the sea.

After a huge investment in time, money and effort, they were left with nothing.

Bjørn and Alise are now fully dedicated to the development of Smart Farms for the farming and harvesting of mussels. They produce custom designed systems that cater for specific bi-valve species and location variations, such as currents, tides and ice.

Why Us!

Our solutions are a sustainable replacement of the traditional longlines and take all aspects of husbandry and harvesting underwater, at site, which substantially reduces labour costs and addresses safety, while it allows a harvest of 30 tons per hour! The system is suited for farming in both open waters and sheltered sites, and is designed for spat-collection and nursery of seed or for on-growing mussels.

The SmartUnits are installed in a global market with high variation in sites, growth rate, species, and manpower costs. They are assembled and towed to the site only once and may remain there throughout its life span (25 years+) which reduces transportation costs and pollution. If needed be, the SmartUnits are easily moved to shelter, or sank to the bottom. In spite of high local variations, analysis show that the savings are substantial with this new design.

Husbandry and harvesting are done entirely in the water, making it simple to reduce the impact of fouling and predators. It also increases the ability to cope with rapid marine changes. Our equipment` capacity and production levels considerably exceed any present commercial scale in rope-cultured mussels.

Users of the Smart Farm solutions report better working conditions, increased safety for personnel and reduction of the manual labour which in its turn reduces risk of incidents. All work is machine operated with no heavy lifting and bent backs in addition, the systems produce minimal waste and its aesthetical design makes the farms less disruptive and visible than when using traditional buoys.

Smart-Farm - Model SmartUnit - Mussel Farming Unit

Product Details