AKVA group has signed a new contract with Saudi Arabia's National Prawn Company (NPC) for the delivery of a complete UNI-recirculation marine hatchery. 

The hatchery is for the greater amberjack, one of the upcoming new fish species in aquaculture. The hatchery will be located at NPC's facility on the coast of the Red Sea close to Jeddah.

"Compared to another successful amberjack recirculation hatchery we have supplied in Chile, we expect higher growth rates in the Red Sea due to the local amberjack's adaptation to higher water temperatures", said President and CEO of AKVA group, Knut Molaug. 

The new hatchery will consist of broodstock facilities with egg collectors, incubation section, first feeding section and the unique AKVA live feed production system operating on recirculation technology.

The hatchery will be equipped with automatic dosing system for live feed, oxygen control and a back-up security system managed by a state-of-the-art control system.

The equipment will be delivered over a period of 16 weeks, and the facility will be commissioned in the beginning of 2010.

The hatchery is an integrated part of a pilot project that plans to establish a complete land-based production facility with an annual production capacity of 5,000 tonnes of amberjack and other potential new aquaculture species.