Successful industrialization of land-based RAS farming has been
warranted by overcoming the many technical challenges related
to adopting the highly cannibalistic European lobster to high-tech
profitable production technologies while still providing optimum
rearing conditions. A major R&D project was conducted on the
island Kvitsøy in SW Norway by Norwegian Lobster Farm Ltd.
during 2000–2007. As a result, the company is today the only
producer of European lobster in the world. The production utilizes
a profitable land-based technology based on re-circulation of
seawater and a world-wide patented single cage technology. The
R&D program included testing of 6 different technical solutions,
developing a formulated diet fulfilling nutritional requirements,
developing various automated solutions (feeding robot, harvesting
robot, selection robot, remote desktop solutions, and image
processing program), developing biological protocols, and conducting
culinary tests and market studies. As a result, Norwegian Lobster
Farm has managed to close the production cycle from egg to platesize
solely based on a formulated diet, demonstrating commercial
harvests and market success both in terms of product quality and
high farm gate prices. This paper presents the system design for
the technology developed by Norwegian Lobster Farm and the how
the system performed under commercial conditions. The biological
data have been collected from a number of individual tests over the
last 10 years.