Historically the answer has been nothing, but in the last five years, Bellingen-based Planet Lighting has become one of the most influential Australian players in the global aquaculture world.
Chief executive Brett Iggulden explained the science behind the correlation.
He said lighting could be a powerful tool in salmon farming because it had a significant impact on fish psychology and behaviour,
by delaying sexual maturation, facilitating rapid growth and increasing survival rates.
“If the fish mature and the flesh goes grey, it’s cat food and worthless,” Mr Iggulden said.
“If you can hold off maturation, that means the fish will grow very quickly, put on a lot more condition and be a much better proposition for the farmer.”
While the process, known as photomanipulation, is not new, the efficiencies afforded by LED lighting systems are.
“LED technology arrived, which had blown all the other technology out of the water,” he said.
“It lasts longer, it draws less power and it’s more efficient.”
Mr Iggulden’s business has grown significantly in the last few years,
with its Bellingen-designed-and-built caged lighting systems operating in salmon exporting powerhouses including Norway, Chile and Canada.
Norway alone produced more than 1.2 million tonnes of salmon in 2017.
Mr Iggulden said most farmed salmon in Australia and New Zealand would also be grown under his company’s equipment.
Sustainable farming practices
Stephan Soule, a researcher at the National Marine Science Centre, said the technology yielded benefits beyond profit.
“By using photomanipulation to delay maturation, not only does it improve flesh quality and better food conversion, it has also been shown to improve fish health,” he said.
The stress of salmon maturing in seawater could lead to increased disease susceptibility, but studies showed exposing it to artificial light lowered the rate at which this occurred.
Mr Soule said while the use of the technology is economically beneficial to farmers and manufacturers, it was unlikely the technology could be exploited.
“There’s a lot of hoops that aquaculturalists have to go through to satisfy lots of different parties within the government and other organisations,” he said.
“We’re not really beating the system and trying to exploit something that is dodgy in some way, this is just another farming practice to help perfect the farming technique.”
Running a successful regional business
Mr Iggulden said he was proud everything from the initial research to product assembly was done out of Bellingen.
The 72-year-old chalked up the success of his multi-million-dollar operation to sticking to those roots and having patience.
“The thing that I notice about the world in general after doing this for a long time is that everyone is in so much of a rush,” he said.
“If you want to get into a market like salmon farming, you’ve got to allow five to seven years of getting it right …
you’ve got to have patient capital, patient people and you don’t want to be running along to ridiculous deadlines, you want to be running on to deadlines that get the best result at the end.”
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-12/salmon-farming-using-lighting-to-grow-business/10366270
