Singapore will soon be home to one of the tallest vertical fish farms on the planet. The eight story building, constructed by Apollo Aquaculture Group, will deliver 3,000 tonnes of grouper, coral trout, and shrimp each year. From Smithsonian:
Each level of the Lim Chu Kang operation has two 135-square-meter tanks supplied with seawater by a system that filters, purifies, monitors, and recirculates water through the farm. As a result, only around five percent of the water needs to be replaced when contaminated by effluent from the fish—though [spokesperson Crono] Lee says the goal at both the new and existing facilities is to reduce that to zero using aquatic plants that clean and treat water naturally. That's in contrast to significant levels of waste at Singapore's traditional onshore pond farms, where farmers routinely clean out and replace entire tanks[…]
"We understand the amount of water required, the condition of the water, and the amount of feed—measured down to a single gram per cubic meter of water. As a result, we're able to produce fish in a much shorter time frame, at the right size for the market," says Lee.
The decision to build this system up, rather than out, is a response to the lack of space in the Asian city-state. "We're a very small country, and it's very difficult to secure land," says Lee. "So rather than building sideways, and expanding horizontally, why not expand vertically?"
image: Apollo Aquaculture Group
