Hans J Marter

1 July 2009

TWO SHETLAND businessmen are targetting the international aquaculture industry with a new passive fish grader they say is superior to existing techniques.

EzeeGrader is the joint venture of Wilbert Johnson, who now lives in Aberdeen, and Charlie Hunter of Lerwick based Ocean Nets Ltd.

Mr Johnson said they had been working on the design for the last three to four years and started selling the first units this year.

Their idea is to combine the advantages of existing grading devices but avoiding their disadvantages.

The EzeeGrader device compromises a series of rigid grids made from injected moulded polyamide, circular in profile, and with apertures of a predetermined width, which smaller fish swim through.

The smooth flowing surface of the moulded polyamide grids and the circular profile prevents any possible scaling or snagging of the fish passing through.

This eliminates physical damage and stress to the fish, ensuring a higher quality end product for the farmer, the company said.

Mr Johnson added: “The original aluminium gates had the advantage of being rigid. On came the flexi-panel system which has flexible bars but had lost some of the rigidity.

“Some fish farmers prefer the results of the old style aluminium bars. However, these are much more difficult to handle because they are bulky in size.

“The task was to combine the rigidity of the aluminium bars with the flexibility of the flexible panel.”

Sea trials with the new product began in 2006 in Shetland waters and, after some modification to the original prototype, continued during 2007 and 2008.

Mr Johnson said they had been receiving “excellent feedback” from fish farmers and were now ready to approach the whole industry in the hope to fill the order books.

To that end, the EzeeGrader will be on show at the important AquaNor industry exhibition in Trondheim, in August this year, which is usually attended by between 15,000 and 20,000 visitors.

“We have been working very slowly and steadily through the development phase to make sure we get it absolutely right,” Mr Johnson added.

More information can be found at www.ezeegrader.co.uk