Copper alloy nets have been around for a while-including here in the Asia Pacific-but their strength & antimicrobial qualities are finding new customers says undercurrentnews.
German copper materials maker Wieland patented its cage mesh technology five years ago and has been slowly building a healthy market in offshore aquaculture.
The company now has customers in Australia, China, and Hawaii, and is in the process of convincing Norway’s salmon farmers to use the technology according to Wieland Group’s head of innovation, Daniel Steitz.
The world’s aquaculture industry is increasingly heading offshore and faces new challenges as a result. The strength, anticorrosion and antimicrobial features of copper alloy nets are finding more interest from companies who have struggled with health and damage issues associated with traditional plastic nets.
Copper nets are particularly important for producing healthy fish because they resist biofouling. This prevents the accumulation of microorganisms, plants, algae, barnacles and mollusks, that tend to accumulate on traditional nylon netting and limit the flow on water into a cage.
undercurrentnews says other companies like Italy’s Badinotti, Israel’s GiliOcean, US based InnovaSea Systems, Japan’s Mitsubishi Materials, Chile’s EcoSea and Germany’s Ulm are also in the global copper alloy net market.
The International Copper Institute in South Korea has been researching copper cages for several years as well in an effort to develop an aquaculture industry around the Korean peninsula, particularly for bluefin tuna. Prototype cages have been tested by STP Donghae, an offshore salmon farmer in South Korea.
Copper mesh is a much more expensive component than traditional nets, but comes into its own in new submersible pen designs, as it solves the problem of needing to frequently clean nets.
undercurrentnews article: https://www.undercurrentnews.com/2020/04/07/top-copper-maker-wieland-sees-end-to-escapes-will-improve-fish-health-with-brass-mesh-cages/
