Features

Italians, noted for their sports cars and world class cuisine, have discovered a new addiction – salmon. According to the latest report from the Norwegian Seafood Council, sales of the pink fish took off during the pandemic and they are now rising at one of the fastest rates in Europe. Sushi is, apparently, the new…

In 1972 Richard Nixon was still in the White House and Ted Heath was Prime Minister of the UK, while David Bowie’s alter ego, Ziggy Stardust, was bringing a unique brand of glamour to the pop charts. And on the west coast of Scotland, a new venture was under way: farming steelhead trout. Kames’ operation…

When the Fish Farmer team visited Kames’ headquarters in Kilmelford, the west coast of Scotland had just seen several days of heavy rain. The water in the hatchery tanks, normally clear, was as dark as whisky thanks to peat washed down from the hillside. It was a reminder that a farm is never separated from…

The day after the EU referendum vote in June 2016, a Humber fish merchant, who had campaigned vigorously for Brexit, was spotted outside his factory sporting a long face. The value of sterling on international currency exchanges had slumped to a 30-year low following the result, making the fish he was buying from Iceland –…

Noemi Lorenzo-Vidaña began work as a seawater health manager and veterinarian at Mowi Scotland earlier this year. She says: “When I started my new job in aquaculture, I was very excited about the new challenge it presented, and especially because the Highlands and Islands is such a wonderful area. “However, the biggest challenge, and most…

Wave energy leaders are targeting aquaculture as a potential development partner with the industries combining to harness the power of the ocean to their mutual benefit. The prospect of taking energy from wave power units to run feed barges, feed pumping systems and farm-cage lighting, was a recurring theme during Wave Energy Scotland’s 2022 conference…

Innovation in aquaculture is not just about serving wealthy, developed nations. An initiative from not-for-profit organisation WorldFish aims to help tilapia farmers in Africa, by supplying a strain of fish that is more resilient and faster growing. The Genetically Improved Farmed Tilapia (GIFT) project is currently being rolled out to farmers in Nigeria. As Dr…

Few people were surprised when land-based fish farming new boy Salmon Evolution announced last month that it was looking to North America for long term growth prospects. The company, due to start production at its first Norwegian facility later this year, clearly sees it as the region with the most promising potential. The Norwegian Seafood…

The certification scheme operated by the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) is one of the most widely used and recognised in the seafood sector. So far in Scotland, 22 salmon farms are ASC-certified, representing 10% of the industry. Mowi was the first to be ASC-certified, in 2015, and Scottish Sea Farms announced its first ASC-certified farms…