Smolt-station in Hallkelshólar formally in operation

Arnarlax recently bought Fjallalax’s smolt and farm production at Hallkelshólar in Grímsnes and last week, The Icelandic Food and Veterinary Authority (MAST) granted the fish farm a 100 ton operating license for salmon and char production at the facility. Operation has already begun with about 500,000 eggs in place at the new facility.

The site manager of Fjallalax in Hallkelshólar is Matthew Chernin, from California in the USA. Matthew moved to Iceland, more specifically to Selfoss, last year. He has previously worked in aquaculture in Washington state in the United States, Sri Lanka and most recently in Norway, where he also completed a master’s degree in aquaculture at NMBU University (Norges miljø- og biovitenskapelige Universiteit). Matthew and his team have been working hard on the preparation for the increase and change in production over the last few weeks and months.

The Sólheimar Travel Fund received a start-up gift

The station at Hallkelshólar was originally built by the the locals Gísli Hendriksson and Rannveig Björg Albertsdóttir, who have also followed the activities at Sólheimar closely (A local eco-village famous for its devotion to community living, sustainability and care for their local residents). To celebrate the formal start of salmon farming in the station, Arnarlax gave ISK 500,000. to the travel fund for the disabled residents of Sólheimar.  Arnarlax already has operations in two other locations in the south of Iceland (One of which a joint-venture project) in addition to it´s facilities in Tálknafjörður in the West-Fjords.
With the addition of the station in Hallkelshólar, South of Iceland is becoming one of the leading aquaculture areas in the country, where many aquaculture companies have chosen to base their smolt operation. Arnarlax’s operations in the area are also growing rapidly and the company now employs 15 people in the South of Iceland.