Sea lice laser technology secures $5.2m in funding

NORWEGIAN firm Stingray Marine Solutions, which makes a novel sea lice deterrant, has secured NOK 45 million ($5.2m) in funding via a share issue carried out by Pareto Securities, it was announced last month. The money comes from Norwegian investors based in Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger and Oslo, all of them represented by the investment company Altitude Capital. Stingray Marine Solutions is based on entrepreneur Esben Beck’s patented idea from 2010 for the removal of sea lice by means of camera vision and laser. The company is a subsidiary of Beck Engineering, and, from

2013 onwards, it developed independently the technology to combat sea lice. Since then the company has sold more than 50 units, mainly to Norwegian fish farms. The submersible laser fires pulses that kill salmon lice without harming the fish swimming past. Stingray had wished to raise NOK 20-30 million, ‘to strengthen its investments in technology for the aquaculture industry’, but the issue was increased due to great interest, it said.

The Stingray consists of two main parts: a buoy that floats on the surface, and a submersible laser unit attached to the bottom of the buoy. It operates automatically and can be immersed to a depth of 30m.

Stingray has also developed a database containing millions of images of salmon lice from all the units placed in fish cages. This continuously transmit images back to the database.

‘In that way we have developed a generic network, in which the nodes [units] are becoming steadily more effective.,’ said general manager John Breivik. ’Today the nodes are already capable of killing up to 10,000 salmon lice a day.We have not had a single case in which the laser has harmed or stressed the fish.’