Freshwater Systems

Just like in nature, our Atlantic salmon live in freshwater for one year before transferring to the ocean. Commonly referred to as “hatcheries”, our freshwater facilities are actually state-of-the-art recirculating systems that reduce the amount of freshwater used and enable our experts to carefully control the environment in which our salmon grow.

Fertilized eggs from Atlantic salmon (Saint John River strain, New Brunswick) are incubated and fish are grown to about 15 g before they are transferred to larger tanks in the smolt buildings. As part of the proposed Project expansion, a post-smolt building will house larger salmon allowing the fish to grow to 250 g+ prior to transfer to sea. This will produce more robust salmon and reduce the amount of time salmon spend at sea.

Indian Head Hatchery: What’s New?

Post Smolt Building

  • Construction of post smolt building(s)
  • Allow production of larger smolt to sea
  • Reduce time smolt spend at sea

Effluent Treatment

  • Additional treatment buildings with UV systems (eliminate pathogens)
  • Triple screened filtration system (remove solids & prevent escapes)

Water(FW & SW)

  • Additional wells for hatchery
  • Both freshwater and saltwater
  • Redundancy for freshwater
  • Saltwater for post smolt (reduce time at sea) 

Vaccination

  • Automated system
  • Reduce stress on fish
  • Improve efficiency (time and injection accuracy)

Fish Transfer

  • Enclosed transfer pipe from hatchery to transport vessel
  • Increases biosecurity
  • Reduce stress on fish

Egg Incubation

  • Modern egg incubation system
  • Improves egg survival and health
  • Reduces freshwater use (recirculating system)

Hatchery Monitoring

Water Quality​

  •  pH
  • Oxygen
  • Ammonia
  • Nitrate/Nitrite
  • Temperature

Fish Health​
(Mowi and Provincial)​

  • Daily checks by staff (health and behaviour)​
  • Veterinarian checks (monthly and quarterly for bacteria and viruses)​
  • Health Permits issued by Provincial vets before transfer to sea

Real Time​

  • Live on Department of Environment website
  • Well water parameters (e.g. pH, temp)

Hatchery Mitigation