Cflow’s innovative valve ensures gentler fish handling in aquaculture

Modern aquaculture requires handling of fish, for example in conjunction with vaccination, delousing and slaughter. This typically involves pumping fish through pipes from fish pens to wellboats and vice versa.

Fish handling systems will always pose some risk to fish welfare, such as impact injuries from incorrect handling or infections and disease from bacterial build-up in pipes or valves. Creating optimal valves that ensure gentle handling – and thereby reduce biomass loss – has been a persistent challenge.

Flowline 5™ from Cflow Fish Handling is an innovative fish valve with four outlets, designed and fine-tuned by an interdisciplinary team of biologists, wellboat engineers and cleaning system suppliers.

The Flowline 5 valve has a continuous bend and cross-section, creating a gentler, smoother path for the fish and thereby reducing the risk of impact injuries.

To reduce the risk of bacterial infection, Flowline 5 is made from a plastic material without grooves or pores where bacteria can grow. Moreover, the valve has several ports for cleaning, flushing and draining for improved biosecurity.

The Flowline 5™ valve reduces the risk of stress, injury and disease from fish handling, in turn leading to higher survival rates and reduced biomass loss in aquaculture production.

Flowline 5 also represents a significant upgrade in efficiency. With its four-way-valve outlet, four Flowline 5 valves can do the same job as 16 standard three-way valves on a wellboat. This also gives more flexibility and options when designing a fish handling system, both on land and at sea.

Flowline 5 is made from a strong and durable type of plastic, enabling it to handle greater tension and strain than standard valves.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the aquaculture industry will play a key role in ensuring food security in the future. Total global fish production is expected to grow to 204 million metric tons in 2030. In response, the demand for solutions that improve fish welfare and production efficiency and reduce biomass loss is also expected to grow.

Cflow Fish Handling is one of the world’s leading developers of systems for handling live fish. The first installation of Flowline 5 will be done on the world’s largest aquaculture wellboat, Gåsø Høvding, in 2021.