Blue Star Foods Corp. Advances Project to Develop First Full-Scale, Commercial Land-Based Aquaculture System
Blue Star Foods Corp.
The new RAS modules
Completes Preliminary Design for New USD$30 Million, 1,500 Tonne Steelhead Farm in British Columbia
MIAMI, Oct. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Blue Star Foods Corp., (OTC: BSFC) (“Blue Star” or “BSFC”), an integrated Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) seafood company, today announced that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Taste of BC Aquafarms (“TBC”), has completed a preliminary design layout for a new 1,500 Tonne Steelhead Farm in British Columbia. BSFC acquired TBC in June of 2021.
Leaders at Taste of BC Aquafarms worked in conjunction with engineers at PRAqua, an aquaculture design and technology provider, to design a standardized module that will be used to initially develop up to 1,500 Tonnes of annual production and is ultimately expected reach up to 21,000 Tonnes of annual production over the next few years. The Company is leveraging technological advances in Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) and nearly 10 years of operational experience from its proof-of-concept facility in Nanaimo to incorporate lessons learned and develop a large scale, state-of-the-art production facility. The Nanaimo facility, which has achieved above target production continuously for nearly two years demonstrating successful proof of concept, is a strong basis for the Company’s confidence in the project.
Steve Atkinson, Founder of Taste of BC, commented, “We have a proven production system at our current facility that has continuously exceeded our design and production objectives and is delivering consistently repeatable results. With this successful proof-of-concept as our basis, we are moving forward with confidence to develop the first Salmon RAS designed from actual production outcomes. Our unique, modular approach will enable us to scale production to meet increasing demand and reduce capacity risk.”
The new RAS modules are each expected to produce 187.5 Tonnes of Steelhead annually, with a single farm consisting of eight modules of six tanks each, with two modules per production unit. The production system is designed such that all established and proven operating procedures and protocols are directly transferrable to the new facilities. Taste of BC will continue to use Fluidized Sand Bed technology for biofiltration, and low head and low energy use will also be a hallmark of the new modules. The proposed facilities will also feature on-site, redundant hatcheries, primary processing and waste capture and remediation.
Ben Atkinson, CEO commented “We have successfully translated our years of operational experience into the design for our new farm and are eager to move to the next milestone. Designing our farms with the ability to scale seamlessly allows us to be more efficient, capture the benefits of known outcomes and leverage our operations to offset the high cost of labour. Importantly, we are also incorporating advancements in RAS technology that have been developed over the last decade since we launched our initial facility.”
About PR Aqua
PR Aqua is an aquaculture design and technology provider based in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada. PRA is a single source provider, supporting clients with a broad range of services including project planning, engineering design, delivery of specialty equipment, construction management and start-up & training services. For more than 20 years, PR Aqua has been providing integrated water treatment and fish handling solutions for both the public and commercial aquaculture industries.
About Blue Star Foods Corp.
Blue Star Foods Corp. is an integrated ESG seafood company that processes, packages and sells high-value seafood products. The Company believes it utilizes best-in-class technology, in both resource sustainability management and traceability, and ecological packaging. The Company also owns and operates the oldest continuously operating Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS) full grow-out salmon farm in North America. The company is based in Miami, Florida, and its corporate website is: www.bluestarfoods.com.
Safe Harbor
This press release contains statements, which may constitute “forward-looking statements”. Those statements include statements regarding the intent, belief, or current expectations of the Company and members of its management team, as well as the assumptions on which such statements are based. Such forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties, and that actual results may differ materially from those contemplated by such forward-looking statements. Important factors currently known to management that may cause actual results to differ from those anticipated are discussed throughout the Company’s reports filed with Securities and Exchange Commission which are available at www.sec.gov as well as the Company’s web site at http://www.bluestarfoods.com. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise forward-looking statements to reflect changed assumptions, the occurrence of unanticipated events or changes to future operating results.
Contact
Brett Maas of Hayden IR
Email: brett@haydenir.com
Office: (646) 536-7331
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