Fish Farmer November 2025

Our cover story for the November issue focuses on the Wild Fisheries Fund, run by trade body Salmon Scotland, as part of a £1.5m commitment to conserve, restore and sustainably manage wild fish populations.

As Sandy Neil reports in this issue, the projects in the latest round of funding include dam restoration to preserve the river environment, a gene bank to ensure the success of wild fish and traps to reduce the numbers of feral mink that prey on salmon and trout.

Meanwhile in North America, as Gordon Feller reports, hatcheries are increasingly being repurposed from suppliers for the fish farming industry to breeding wild salmon for restocking rivers.

Also in the November issue, we report on the annual conference of the Association of Scottish Shellfish Growers in Oban, where the verdict on the latest rapid biotoxin tests for shellfish was unveiled.

Delegates at the conference also heard about how science is supporting the sector, the issues for shellfish growers in Australia and a new call for project proposals from the Shell-volution initiative in Shetland.

Vince McDonagh reports on changes coming up in Norway aimed at reducing the carbon emissions of aquaculture industry vessels, Martin Jaffa takes a sceptical look at efforts to persuade the British public to eat more fish, Salmon Scotland’s Tavish Scott has a message for Scotland’s politicians and Nick Joy discusses the question of seafood as a brand or a commodity.

Finally, our latest Aqua Agenda webinar, in association with Onda, deals with the issues around bringing a regulated product to the market for the aquaculture sector.