Archive for April 2019
Wild salmon stocks at ‘crisis point’
WILD salmon catches in Scotland are at their lowest level since records began, according to Fisheries Management Scotland. The body, which represents fisheries boards, said figures due to be published later will show stocks of the fish are at their lowest levels since 1952 and at ‘crisis point’, the BBC reported this morning. Environment secretary…
Read MoreShetland welfare course goes global
AQUACULTURE students from around the world have enrolled on a fish welfare course run from Shetland, thanks to online learning. More than 200 students – from Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal and Canada – have signed up to the course since it was launched, by the NAFC Marine Centre UHI. The course was developed by…
Read MoreTromsø dilutes ban on sea farms
THE northern Norwegian city of Tromsø has rowed back on its controversial plan for an outright ban on open sea fish farms within its municipal area. The left leaning city council caused a big stir last November when it declared that all future development should be centred around closed, land based farms. The decision brought…
Read MoreMowi plans to farm in the depths
NORWEGIAN salmon farmer Mowi plans to lower its fish farms far below the surface of the sea, combining technology from the Norwegian aquaculture, subsea and offshore industries. The company has applied for 36 development licences for the realisation of its AquaStorm concept, it announced in a press release. ‘This is the largest development project we…
Read MoreSalmon veteran to run Tasmania mill
FEED company BioMar has appointed farming veteran David Whyte to run its new plant in Tasmania, due to open in early 2020. Whyte, a marine biologist with 32 years’ experience in aquaculture, was chief operating officer at New Zealand King Salmon for a period last year. He has had leading roles at Marine Harvest Scotland…
Read MoreSalmon farmers a good bet, says bank
A LEADING Nordic financial institution has said it expects salmon farming companies to continue to show an increase in earnings this year. Danske Banke, which is Danish owned and has operations in at least 16 countries, believes prices are expected to rise or at least remain stable this year and this means salmon stocks constituted…
Read MoreAce scoops second Queen’s Award
DUNDEE based Ace Aquatec has won a prestigious Queen’s Award for the second year in a row after its electronic stunner was recognised for animal welfare innovation. The Award for Enterprise Innovation marks the success of the company’s in-water electric stunning system in rendering fish unconscious before being processed. The honour, which coincides with the…
Read MoreYoung eat 50% less fish than grandparents
YOUNG people are eating half the amount of fish that their grandparents’ generation consumed, according to research. Inadequate cooking skills are thought to be behind the decline among 18-34-year-olds, with only a quarter of millennials saying they felt very confident cooking seafood at home. The findings, from industry body Seafish, follow a recent report by…
Read MoreTaking stock of wild salmon
A NEW scheme aimed at boosting stocks of wild salmon is explained in a special Fish Farmer podcast by Jon Gibb, fishery manager of the River Lochy and director of the Lochaber District Salmon Fishery Board. Working with Mowi, Scotland’s biggest salmon farmer, Gibb and his team have launched a new approach to restocking, thought…
Read MoreMowi buys Anglesey lumpfish farm
THE Welsh lumpfish farmer, Ocean Matters, has been bought by Mowi Scotland, effective from April 15, the company confirmed today. The facility, in Penmon, Anglesey, North Wales, has the capacity to produce two million of the cleaner fish, which it has been supplying to the salmon farming industry in Scotland to control sea lice. Its…
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