Given the difficulties they have faced in their first year of operations at their Florida, US land-based Atlantic salmon farm, Atlantic Sapphire CEO Johan Andreassen believes the many similar ventures sprouting up around the world will be in for a rude awakening when their own operations begin.

Speaking to Spheric Research's Matt Craze on behalf of Undercurrent News, Andreassen is convinced that projects following in Atlantic Sapphire's wake "will have their hands full for the next two years". 

"This is very, very complicated, and I'm sure everyone is going to experience setbacks and roadblocks," the Atlantic Sapphire CEO said. "You need the right team, you need the right concepts, and you need the right location."

"In many ways, I would say it's probably easier to pull this off in Norway or Chile for example, where you have an existing industry and supply so that if you have a mortality event, you can restock fish, get your hands on smolt from an external source."

Andreassen also noted that different designs would encounter different problems; those plants using less water will end up with a more complex system with more points of failure as a result. 

"That was one of the main reasons why we decided to locate in Florida, where we have basically unlimited amounts of water available to us [from the Floridan aquifer]" [...]