Huge Offshore Salmon Farm Havfarm 1 Anchors in Norwegian Waters

Norway has deployed Havfarm 1, an offshore fish farming installation built to withstand harsh open-ocean conditions in the northern region. The massive steel structure measures 385 metres in length and 59.5 metres in width.

Commissioned by Norwegian aquaculture firm Nordlaks and designed by NSK Ship Design (NSK), the vessel-shaped platform provides capacity for up to 10,000 tonnes of salmon, which equates to roughly two million fish.

The layout features six distinct containment cages, each measuring 47 metres by 47 metres. Engineering teams incorporated advanced support systems directly into the frame. Integrated equipment handles fish feeding, dead fish extraction, and underwater camera monitoring across all units.

Anchored at a designated offshore site, Havfarm 1 uses a specialized turret mooring system. The dynamic setup allows the entire structure to rotate 360 degrees, aligning with wind and wave direction to reduce structural strain during heavy weather.

Moving aquaculture operations away from coastal fjords into exposed waters represents a major technological shift for the marine engineering sector. The design addresses environmental challenges by increasing water flow through the nets, which lowers waste concentration and helps control parasitic sea lice without reliance on chemical treatments.

Construction of the facility took place at the Yantai Raffles Offshore Shipyard in Shandong Province, China, under strict international classification rules. Transporting the completed 37,500-tonne steel hull to Norwegian waters required specialized heavy-lift shipping operations across ocean routes.

The project forms part of a broader development initiative backed by Norwegian authorities. The program aims to encourage technical innovations that expand sustainable commercial fish production beyond sheltered coastal areas into deeper offshore environments.