Hello to you!

My name is Vidar Vangen, civil engineer and general manager of Merdslippen . My first encounter with the aquaculture industry was a summer job at a farm in Austevoll. In my adult life I have been involved in equipment related to aquaculture, of which the last 17 years as general manager in Merdslippen AS. 

Already in the late 80s, we built a closed facility for the Lafjord group at Flekkefjord. The facility was developed in collaboration with Sintef, and functioned as intended for 5 years, but was then discontinued because another method was found to avoid the harmful algae. 

In the following years, the catamaran cage became the mainstay product, but eventually land-based facilities based on recycling and closed sea facilities for the production of ready-to-slaughter salmon came into being. The largest of these facilities was Marine Production AS in Arendal with general manager Torjan Bodvin, a biologist. 

The reason for the establishment was to avoid the cold water from the Skagerak by supplying the plant with water from below the spring layer and thereby achieve better growth during the winter months. The company produced large, fine salmon at the same cost as farmers in Western Norway.  

Valuable studies and important experiences were carried out at these facilities, which we have built on in the development of Merdslippens GreenBag .

Development
For several years, we have worked to develop new and better solutions for salmon farming. Merdslippens GreenBag is our latest step towards sustainable salmon farming. The first two GreenBags have been in operation at Hardingsmolt at Fitjar since January 2019. Two more GreenBagers are now installed and in operation at Fitjar.

In recent years, we have also developed Reset , our most ambitious and innovative project.

Merdslippen is participating in the 6-year project KABIS "Capacity Boost for Sustainable and Innovative Seafood Production" , which will, among other things, contribute to new knowledge and innovation within production technology for the aquaculture industry, in order to achieve an even more environmentally friendly and cost-effective production of salmonid fish. We will work together to achieve our overall goal of realizing the potential for sustainable growth in aquaculture. KABIS is particularly aimed at companies that work to develop and operate new, more sustainable aquaculture systems.

Our production is ensured by a solid quality system, and Merdslippen is certified as a supplier according to NS9415:2009 and NYTEK.