Deep farming and lice control
With Nautilus, AKVA group offers the world’s first commercial deep farming solution for both salmon, trout and cod.
Nautilus is our commercial deep farming solution – designed to reduce sea lice, improve fish health and enable sustainable farming.
Nautilus combines a submerged net with a floating collar, advanced waterborne feeding, smart environmental control, and an air dome that ensures safe access to air in the deep. Developed through years of engineering and collaboration with research partners, it is now in commercial operation for salmon, trout and cod.
Key benefits
- The fish can grow in an environment with significantly less or no contact with sea lice, jellyfish, and algae
- Up to 100% reduction in sea lice treatments
- Improved fish health, welfare, and growth
- Stable production environment in the deep
- Energy-efficient feeding and full monitoring
Air dome in the deep
Salmonids refill their swim bladder daily. The air dome ensures constant access to air in the depths, providing good environmental conditions that allow the fish to thrive in the depths. The feed is delivered by waterborne feeding technology.
Tailored to your site
Optimal Nautilus solution depends on site conditions and application. For deep operations, it is essential to understand currents, waves, temperature, salinity, and oxygen conditions. Our marine engineers use the AquaSim simulation tool to analyse data and recommend the best configuration for your site.
Choose your Nautilus version
Four examples of designs. Ideal design depends on depth, current, desired volume and existing infrastructure. Nautilus standard and three Nautilus versions for full production volume.
Nautilus Standard
Nautilus – full production volume
- Two sinkertubes
- Better tensioning
Nautilus – full production volume
- Mooring at top
- Current resistant
- Precision demanding
Nautilus – full production volume
- Centerweight
- Current resistant
- More depth required
Technical solution
- The buoyant pen lies on the surface; the net with roof and air dome is lowered to >20 meters
- Nets and dome suspended from straps or ropes under the pen
- Buoyant pen without styrofoam, includes bottom ring
- Fish access air and feed through the dome placed at the net roof’s center
- Standard frame mooring, certified NS 9415:21
- Prepared for sludge collection
Latest developments
- Full-scale operations also for trout and cod (Spring 2025)
- New air dome (Dec 2024): improved water flow and easier day-to-day handling.
- Nautilus is available in full production volume for current-exposed sites (Autumn 2024)
- AI-assisted monitoring: AKVA smarteye modular cameras, AKVA submerged camera tracking biomass, lice, and health parameters, and AKVA observe your intelligent feeding assistant.
Waterborne feeding
Deep farming requires waterborne feeding – our system delivers pellets precisely at depth, stays gentle on pellets, cuts energy use by up to 70%, and keeps microplastic discharge near zero.
AKVA smarteye modular - sharp vision, total control
Camera with 360° coverage, a clear picture, and real-time measurement of environmental parameters, an ideal choice for monitoring feeding and fish behaviour.
Read more
Important functions
Raising and lowering:
With AKVA Polarcirkel Lifting System, raising and lowering of the Nautilus is an easy and safe operation.
Learn more
Designed to fit pen:
Nautilus is designed for the Polarcirkel 500R pen series.
Learn more
Camera and sensors: Cameras enable continuous monitoring and insight of the fish in the deep. AKVA Submerged camera surveilling biomass, weight distribution, lice counts, and health parameters. This data enables decisions that promote good fish welfare and fish health.
Learn more
Proven results
- More than 300 Nautilus units are deployed since 2021.
- The fish thrives in the deep and show good welfare
- Largely reduce lice infestations and significantly fewer delousing operations compared to conventional technology (see charts below)
- Operational stability with feeding at depth and continuous monitoring.
Salmon in submerged: Facilities experienced substantially lower lice infestation and required ten times fewer delousing operations per pen. Data from six sites with deep farming compared to reference sites with conventional technology showed 0.6 versus 6.1 delousing operations per pen. Source: Høvik, C. (2025). Growth, welfare and sea lice infestation of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) produced in submerged and surface pens. Master’s thesis, NTNU.
Watch our deep farming webinars
Other lice control solutions
If deep farming is not right for your site, AKVA group also offers an alternative solution for sea lice mitigation:
OptiCage
Traditional pen with lice skirts and active deep-water intake.
From research to reality
The AKVA group Nautilus concept builds on over a decade of innovation starting with the Atlantis Subsea Farming project, in collaboration with IMR, SINTEF Ocean and leading fish farming partners.
