DESS AQUA
DESS
Aquaculture
An optimistic outlook for the fish farming industry and DESS
Aqua is carving out an important part in it.
Ò Jason
Zamparutti at
work
"Client feedback
has been positive
and operations are
running smoothly"
Kjetil Løseth, Commercial Director DESS Aqua
8 SOLSHIPS
W
hat started as a
potential solution
to the many PSVs
that were unable
to find work due
to the offshore downturn, led to
the establishment of an incredibly
interesting addition to the Solstad
family. It was however quickly
established that to provide a quality
service in the aquaculture industry,
purpose build vessels was the only
solution and the PSV conversion
idea was set to one side.
DESS Aqua was established in
2016 as a joint venture between
Deep Sea Supply and Marine
Harvest. Following the merger,
DESS Aqua became part of the
Solstad portfolio. The DESS Aqua
team are based in Grimstad in
southern Norway and is comprised
of five staff that are responsible for
the full project scope within the
DESS Aqua remit. Everything from
newbuild project management, to
operations, technical, crewing and
commercial is dealt with by the team
in Grimstad.
Once the company was established,
a newbuild program was quickly put
in place with a range of vessels that
can operate within the aquaculture
industry. The first of which delivered
in early 2018, Aqua Merdø. Aqua
Merdø is a harvest vessel which
means once the vessel has loaded the
fish from the fish farm, it ‘stuns and
bleeds’ the fish before transporting
the cargo to shore for further
processing. The second vessel to
deliver came towards the end of year
and was named Aqua Tromøy. This
vessel is the first in a series of two
3000 m3 live fish carriers that are
being built in Poland. Aqua Tromøy
will go on a long-term contract
working in Canadian waters. It was
recently announced that one of the
live fish carriers under construction
in Turkey has secured a ten-year
contract offshore Tasmania.
The newbuilding program
continues with a further six live
fish carriers being built in Turkey
and three landing utility vessels.
The first of these utility vessels is
expected to deliver at the start of
2019 and ultimately all three will
go to work off the west coast of
Scotland at the Marine Harvest
facilities there.
DESS
AQUA
Vessels 2 in
operation,
10 under
construction
Office Grimstad
New equity was raised in
December 2018 which meant an
additional NOK 700m was available
to the company. This took Solstad’s
share to around 20% of DESS
Aqua while Marine Harvest and
Hemen Holding represented the
remainder. The new funds will to
towards financing the vessels under
construction and further growth.
It’s been a busy year for the DESS
Aqua team dealing in a segment
of the company going through
incredible growth while working
alongside colleagues in offshore
still in many ways struggling with
the effects of a downturn. 2019 will
see further newbuilds delivery and
hopefully more contract awards for
those under construction.
SOLSHIPS 9