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Description
Construction of a transport unit - in a 40-foot refrigerated container - that will allow housing / keeping fish / marine invertebrates on a long-term basis. Given the characteristics of this unit, its name has been changed to “mobile station”, as it will allow (literally) the Flying Sharks operations center to be moved to any part of the world by sea and / or road. The technical specifications of the tanks and filtration equipment, will make this unit the most modern in the world, being able to be replicated and sold to public aquariums and / or aquacultures. This equipment includes, among many other details, remote monitoring of animals and physical-chemical parameters of water quality.Development and testing of the “mobile station”, in collaboration with the Iceland Marine Research Institute, given its experience in the long-distance transport of cold water specimens. The construction of the tanks will be the responsibility of the partner DKM.
Summary of project results
Flying Sharks has been moving live aquatic animals since 2006 and enjoys unparalled success in its field. One of our “signature” transports includes two A300s packed with 3100 fish and invertebrates moved from Lisbon to Istanbul in December 2010. There were 3 losses in that transport, which means a survival rate of 99,9%. Over the years, Flying Sharks sought to become the very bst in its field and our multiple publications on long-term transports (available from www.flyingsharks.eu/literature/) show exactly that. In 2018 an extremely complex transport – by road – was conducted from Istanbul to Madrid and an excruciatingly high level of bureaucracy extended a transport of 15 captive bred cownose rays, Rhinoptera marmoratus, to an unprecedented 6 days in transit. While survivorship was 100% - in fact, we delivered 17 animals, because 2 were born in transit – this led the team to create a concept whereby a transport unit could be used for any indefinite period of time. In other words, a holding station with wheels, or a “Mobile Station”.The objective of this project is therefore to build a state of the art “transport unit” – consisting of an isothermic temperature controlled 40 feet shipping container – which will allow to hold and move marine fish and invertebrates over longterm periods. Given its longterm scope, this unit was later rebaptized to a “mobile holding station”, since it will allow for far more than merely moving animals, while in fact allowing for moving the whole of Peniche’s holding station anywhere in the world by land or water. The equipments chosen for water filtration and monitoring will make this the most sophisticated unit of its kind in the world, allowing for subsequent sales of customized units to public aquaria, collection companies or aquaculture facilities. Such details include, among others, remote monitoring of water quality parameters and the animals themselves.
From an original concept originally designed with Google Sketch-up (top picture, below) this was later upgraded to a more sophisticated professional software, such as Inventor (lower picture, below).The concept included very simple guidelines:- To provide the maximum volume of water possible within a 25 tons 40 ft. shipping container, and that volume is 17 m3.- To provide state-of-the art filtration, which includes five distinct steps:o Protein skimming (also known as foam fractionation) to eliminate dissolved organic mattero Ultra-violet disinfection to eliminate pathogenic microorganismso Pressurized chamber with activated carbon to eliminate dissolved materialso Pressurized chamber with pleated media to eliminate suspended materialso Gravity wool-fiber bags to eliminate particulated materials- To provide the highest turnover possible, with the goal of filtering 100% of the volume in each tank 4 times per hour, while the standard in the industry is only once per hour.- To use robust and state-of-the-art materials, which should withstand permanent contact with saltwater, quite abrupt moves by road, and sea, and the harshest environments possible, such as extreme heat or cold.As the project matured, by the time it was submitted for approval the team was 100% satisfied with the fact that this Mobile Station would in fact be the most modern of its kind in the world.
The Mobile station is up and running , transporting fish as planned, fulfilling the project objective
Summary of bilateral results
Flying Sharks has benefitted from a close partnership with the Icelandic Marine Research Institute (IMRI) that dates back to 2013, when the first load of Iceland codfish was transported to the Ílhavo Aquarium. Since then, fisheries biologist and researcher Agnar Steinarsson was in fact invited to deliver a keynote talk at the International Meeting on Marine Resources, hosted by the Escola superior de Tecnologia do Mar in Peniche, in July 2014. This invitation was extended by Project Leader João Correia, a professor at this school.As the relationship between Agnar and João grew, both on the academic and codfish supply fronts, Agnar became the obvious partner to revise the Mobile Station project, since he himself moved live fish from Iceland to other countries on multiple occasions. Agnar kindly donated his time for free, which is why the involvement of IMRI did not incur in any costs. During the duration of the project Agnar revised extensively all aspects of its development, until his retirement in 2023.