equipment engineered for aquaculture
will your farm survive the storm?
Our Story
We are a small enterprise, based in Tasmania’s Huon valley, who have been supporting Tasmanian salmon aquaculture farming for more than 20 years. We bring together professional engineering expertise and project experience from around the world and across industries to solve aquaculture farm challenges in Tasmania. Our strength lies in our ability to work closely with the fish farms to solve their issues and to take these lessons and build them into excellent products. With a specialisation in advanced engineering simulation, we conduct computer trials of our equipment so that the farmer doesn’t suffer in-field trial and failure.
We believe salmon aquaculture farming in Tasmania can be better and the best way we can help the industry improve is to place sustainable design thinking at the heart of every project we deliver.
engineering support
Our professional engineers help you solve on-site engineering problems, repetitive failure, new equipment design, and existing design improvement. Our Advanced Engineering Simulation service delivers insight when experience isn’t enough.
Our productS
Ocean Rogue delivers products for reliability, operational efficiency, and superior performance. Our products are currently in service in Salmon and Barramundi aquaculture farms in Tasmania and North Western Australia.
We engineer our products using advanced engineering simulation, and manufacture them in Tasmania, to relevant standards to ensure farm needs are met and to reduce the costs associated with on-farm “trial and error”.
aquaculture Net Washing machine
Bio-fouling is a relentless enemy of the aquaculture farmer and few things throttle fin fish production like a net cleaning bottleneck or a disease outbreak.
Biofoul buildup on nets adds potentially huge engineering loads to mooring and cage structures and with it, significant risk of asset damage/failure and potential stock loss.
Boifoul buildup and their associated pathogens pose a significant disease risk.
Whilst it is now commonplace to manage biofoul build up with in-situ net cleaning machines this technology is far from perfect. Notably, in-situ cleaners cannot clean the net around the cage collar. This means the resultant biofoul build up in this area continues to cause weight/drag issues on the lease, imposing heavy lifting constraints and net management difficulties, and posing bio-security risk.
Regardless of in-situ net cleaning there also remains a need for periodic on-slab net cleaning and repair due to net wear and tear, storm and predator damage.
One approach is to leave nets in-situ for as long as possible, thus avoiding frequent handling overheads, however the downside requires handling of extremely heavy nets, with costly processes and heavy lifting equipment.
The use of manual labour with high pressure cleaners on-slab to prepare the nets for repair is also used to avoid the up front capital cost of an on-slab net washing machine….. However high pressure cleaners are hard on nets and extremely time consuming, and it is difficult to attract/retain staff for these jobs. The personnel costs in wages also add up.
Perhaps the greatest risk of infrequent/manual on-slab netwashing is the net cleaning bottleneck. One slip up in the net cleaning production line due to a surge in cleaning/repair requirements, storm damage, or a significant disease outbreak (requiring the additional net cleanliness that only on-slab net washing can deliver), and a business limiting bottleneck can occur. We have seen it happen.
As on slab net cleaning and repair cannot be avoided, perhaps the question becomes how often to remove nets for on-slab cleaning and repair versus leaving and cleaning them in-situ.
Ocean Rogue’s “on-slab” Net Washing Machine, featured in the pictures, has served Tasmanian salmon aquaculture farming for more than 15 years as a core component of bio security management and net maintenance/repair programs.
The on-slab net washing machine delivers cleaner nets than in-situ net washing devices and without damaging the nets. Operators say the nets come out of the wash cycle in very good condition, despite the often significant bio foul loads washed/knocked off with the rise and fall action of the wash.
One farm in Tasmania (in combination with its in-situ machines) routinely removes nets and washes them on-slab in the net washing machine at the end of each growth cycle to maximise bio security between year classes and grow out and to deliver nets for repair that are properly clean for that purpose.
Biofoul laden nets up to 18 Tonnes have been washed in Ocean Rogue’s 20 Tonne 110,000 litre net washing machine.
On any day of the year Ocean Rogue’s net washer will wash up to 4 nets of varying size at a time during two 3 hour wash cycles per day. Our wash settings deliver low wear and tear on the machine and can suit low water usage. In the field currently, the machine is filled with 56,000 litres of fully recycled water for each wash cycle.
Ocean Rogue’s net washing machine is supplied complete with perforated drum, hydraulic drive and fully programmed electrical control system ready for installation on your site.
Your choice of drum material includes mild steel, painted mild steel, or stainless steel (painted or stainless is highly recommended)..
We supply options including:
in-pit or above pit washing machine with design modification to suit your site;
extra wide door opening (to assist large and/or heavy net handling);
custom additions such as screw conveyor or centrifuge to integrate with on-site waste management/environmental requirements; and
stairs, walkways and fences to your site requirement.
Versions:
20 Tonne, 110,000 litres
40 Tonne, 110,000 litres
Custom - designed to your requirement.
Ocean Rogue Netwashing Machine - 20 Tonne fouled net (110,000 litre) capacity.
In operation in a Tasmanian salmon aquaculture farm for more than 15 years (drum replaced at 15 year mark) this machine washes up to 4 nets in 2 x 3 hour wash cycles per day. The original drives, shafts, controllers and bearings continue in service.
Ocean Rogue Netwashing Machine - 20 Tonne fouled net (110,000 litre) capacity.
This machine was designed, engineered, and manufactured in Tasmania.
Ocean Rogue’s first 20 Tonne (110,000litre) Net Washer Drums being Manufactured in 2007: Designed, Engineered and Manufactured in Tasmania.
Ocean Rogue’s Net washing machine shown with screw conveyor option in suspended pit.
Mooring Rings
Mooring rings are one of the reasons that your farm survives the storm.
Ocean Rogue’s mooring ring designs have performed throughout Australia and New Zealand for more than 15 years.
In consultation with mooring system suppliers and farmers, our rings also meet the needs of installation, maintenance and handling.
With farms moving to high energy environments, there is an imperative for mooring ring design that is “rated” to Engineering Standards and which is capable of reliable and consistent manufacture.
We now have the capacity to manufacture mooring rings in Tasmania that are competitively priced against products manufactured in China without the attendant quality and supply chain logistics issues.
Our new Mooring Rings are engineered to meet Norwegian Standard NS9415.
We have both Cast and fabricated steel versions, dependant on application.
Cast rings are: manufactured to ISO 9001;
○ Made from 99.7% recycled materials of Tasmanian origin; and
○ Designed, Engineered and Manufactured in Tasmania.
Ocean Rogue Mooring Ring: Fabricated Steel: in operation. Designed and Engineered in Tasmania.
Mort-Lifter
Regular removal of mortalities from fin fish aquaculture cages reduces the potential for disease risk and lessens predator temptation, saving costly net damage and stock loss.
Ocean Rogue’s fin fish mort collector and airlift removal device is stitched in to the base of your net, enabling morts to collect in the bucket and to be swiftly and efficiently removed upon switching on the airlift pump system.
When morts collect in the bucket they are not lying at the base of the net, attracting seals and other predators to bite and damage the net.
As the device is stitched in to the net, there is no need to lift it in and out of the net for every mort removal operation.
The easy disconnection of the centre airlift injector enables fish crowding operations without the need to remove the collector.
Ocean Rogue Mort-Lifter devices are in operation in Tasmania and have received excellent reviews.
Designed for high efficiency using computer based computational fluid dynamics, the airlift system effortlessly transports morts, with no blockages or “hang ups”.
The Ocean Rogue Fin Fish Mort-Lifter is currently optimised for fin fish up to 600mm in length. This can be altered to your requirement.
Ocean Rogue Patented “in-net” mort-lifter:
Designed, Engineered, Manufactured in Tasmania.
