Thanks to the water treatment technology of domestic construction companies, the first-ever "clean K-salmon raised on land" can now be served at the dinner table.
On the 20th, GS Engineering and Construction held the completion ceremony for the "Busan Smart Aquaculture Cluster," the first land-based smart salmon farming facility in the country, and announced the start of full-scale salmon farming.
At the completion ceremony for the "Busan Smart Aquaculture Cluster" in Gijang County, Busan, approximately 150 officials, including Heo Yoon-hong, the representative of GS Engineering and Construction, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and the Busan Metropolitan Government, attended the event, celebrating the start of domestic production of land-based salmon aquaculture while touring the salmon farming facilities.
The Busan Smart Aquaculture Cluster began in 2019 with the support of both government funds and the Busan city budget, and GS Engineering and Construction participated as a private investor through its subsidiary Ecoaquafarm, established after signing a business agreement with the Busan city in July 2020 for the creation of the smart aquaculture cluster.
The most significant feature of the "Busan Smart Aquaculture Cluster" is its use of eco-friendly equipment for water treatment with a closed-loop recirculating aquaculture system (RAS), which allows for salmon farming on land instead of at sea. RAS involves creating farming facilities on land, drawing groundwater or seawater, treating it with water treatment technology to purify contaminants, and raising salmon while also reprocessing the discharged aquaculture water to cleanly release it back into the sea. This eco-friendly facility can reuse up to 99% of the rearing water.
GS Engineering and Construction expects that the RAS method will enable the production of clean salmon safe from marine pollution issues, such as microplastics, heavy metals, and viruses, which have been pointed out as limitations of existing offshore cage farming.
Heo Yoon-hong, the representative of GS Engineering and Construction, noted, "With the completion of the Busan Smart Aquaculture Cluster, we will contribute to the sustainable growth of the domestic fisheries industry by expanding the base of smart aquaculture technology and possessing expertise and competitiveness in the marine specialty plant sector."