Well-Boat (Aquaculture)

A well boat in aquaculture is a vessel with flooded onboard tanks (wells) that circulate oxygenated seawater to keep farmed fish alive in transit, moving salmon smolts to sea sites and harvest fish to slaughter, and increasingly delivering non-medicinal sea-lice treatments. Closed and filtered circulation modes isolate the well water from the surrounding farm to cut pathogen and lice spread between sites, a biosecurity requirement in Norwegian and Scottish salmon farming. The largest modern wellboats carry several thousand cubic meters of well volume with controlled temperature, oxygen, and CO2 management.